Starry Starry Nights
by Fenschway
Summary: It seems an assassin named Logan has just literally dropped into Tokyo, but he can't remember who or what he is, let alone his mission. A few beer swilling, cold alien females then make this big, warm, crude, and not so cuddly nor clear thinking guy their mission for romance, not knowing an old sad song was everyone's greatest enemy.
1. Chapter 1

_Sekirei is owned by __Sakurako Gakurakuin. Wolverine is owned by Marvel Entertainment, LLC._

**Starry Starry Nights**

**Chapter One – First Night**

His awakening impression was that he was laying on his back in a very big city, and his whole body was lightly clutched by being in a deep indentation in the turf of a wooded lawn. His body ached all over, and his head was pounding painfully as his physical senses sharpened somewhat and began to function a little more normally. No heat or light on his closed eyelids. Night time? Slight cool, floral filled breeze on the exposed skin of his upturned face. A very dim echo seemed to sound from within the fog enveloping his thinking. Had he been in a similar situation before with a woman he loved? If so, when? Where? With who?

His senses heightened further, and he rapidly cataloged every input. Cherry blossoms. Grass recently cut. A nearby pond with blooming water lilies fed by a waterfall from a small stream. Heavy smells of vehicle exhaust amidst cooling asphalt and various types of plastic polymers. Combined yet distinctive stinks of sewage, strewn trash, garbage, and sweaty, musky, too crowded humans. Feral cats and dogs were roaming the immediate area from the scents they were were emitting. Rats were scavenging around here also. There was a sharp waft of hot oil, boiling noodles, and cooking beef, shrimp, chicken, and pork from a restaurant that must be close and making him feel hungry. Smelled like a fast food udon joint. How did he know that? There was an overall and subtle background atmosphere of salt laden air, dead fish, rotting seaweed, and ozone from maglev train coils somewhere not too far away and above him. A major city with an ocean port?

There was no mistaking any of these scents, nor the sounds of heavy vehicle traffic nearby and sirens echoing from several directions in the distance. Closer, a few slow walking pedestrians were chatting amiably as they passed. A couple had paused, their voices coming to his sharp hearing from a slightly lower angle. Had they sat down on a wall or a bench maybe?

He had experienced most of these sensual impressions before. When? Another elusive wisp of an old, old memory from somewhere deep in his mind was triggered for comparison. Tokyo at night? A spring night? In a city park maybe? It certainly felt like springtime Tokyo, or at least, a very close simile of the Tokyo he had known, loved, and left so long ago. Why? There came a sharp pang of heavy grief and long lasting sorrow over a great love lost. Who had she been? Matter of fact, who was he? What was his name? How long had he lain here? Better yet, WHY and HOW had HE gotten here? These questions immediately made his headache worse.

With a Herculean effort, he opened his eyes and immediately noticed only a very few stars were visible through the darkened, lightly swaying, and rustling tree branches directly above him. He dropped his attention to let his eyes gaze at a forty five degree angle. There was a city skyline visible through more trees in front of him. The symbols of the multicolored neon signs glowing and blinking on nearby buildings were Japanese kanji. A closer street sign said "Shiba Park Maglev Terminal ". This was Tokyo then. He could read Japanese? Yes, and speak it well he realized suddenly, but he was still thinking in English. Odd.

Odder still was a sense of approaching danger, because he got a strong whiff of dried blood. He weakly tried to turn his head but couldn't. The earth clasping his whole body was stopping him. He could smell a human female was coming toward him slowly from the right. She stopped. He shifted his eyes sideways and tried to focus. The glare of sidewalk lights behind made her figure appear shadowy. No. She was not human. The infrared bandwidths of his vision clearly indicated that her inner body temperature was radiating much higher heat than normal, but there was also a definite aura of cold surrounding her that no human woman could produce. She felt like a much younger female version of Iceman. Now who had he been?

He narrowed his eyes to cut down on the light glare. Except for what looked like a too small lab coat only partially buttoned, the female looked naked. She took a small and hesitant step towards him. The dried blood was definitely on her clothing as its scent shifted with her. Her hands were coming up and crossing before her as she seemed to cock her head sideways and peer at him more closely. There was an increased sense that her cyrokinetic aura was rapidly building around her for what? Attack or defense? It didn't matter. He had to move. Now! He had to MOVE!

Some kind of wild power surged through him as his lungs forced a loud feral growl past his gritted teeth. Suddenly, he found himself crouching a few feet further away from where he had been, his own arms crossed before him and with three gleaming, foot long metal talons extending from each of his tightly clenched fists. Now how had he done that? No normal human could. What was he?

He frowned in concentration as he assessed the inhuman female's imminent threat to him. In addition to the dried blood, she smelled slightly of stale sweat, cheap soap and shampoo, and recent urination. She had an overall trace of musky female pheromones that reminded him of french vanilla flavored ice cream. She had bare legs and feet, short and sort of shaggy cut light brown hair, a pink, bird shaped tattoo peeking out of the bangs covering her forehead, and dull, sleepy, expressionless gray eyes that had opened slightly wider in surprise, curiosity, and fear from his leap away from her.

He also duly noted that she was about five foot seven inches in height, weighing maybe 105 pounds, and having almost impossible Barbie doll measurements of 36/22/36 along with the flawless complexion and the perfectly symmetrical, oval facial features of a top international model. She was a stunning beauty and as sexy looking as anything he could ever remember seeing. He blinked as he frowned anew at another oddity. He couldn't remember ever seeing a female before, let alone an inhuman one. What was a hottie? Setting all that aside, this one didn't appear to be too intent on attacking as her hands were dropping and her cold aura began fading slightly.

The scantily dressed alien female, now giving every impression of being extremely tired, suddenly dropped to a half sprawl before him. She still eyed him curiously before mustering the effort to speak in slightly accented Japanese.

"Uhhh, you fell. From the sky."

Her voice was a low contralto. He could tell from the scent of her exhaled breath that she hadn't brushed her teeth lately, nor taken a bath from the amount of smudged dirt on her arms, feet, and legs. He also noted with narrowed eyes that there were small scraps of skin under her fingernails, and she had been scraped and scratched. There were bruises about her arms and legs, especially around her wrists and ankles. She had fought free of some kind of bondage perhaps? While injuring whoever had bound her? An escapee then, and not much of a conversationalist.

"I fell?" He heard himself reply while not relaxing his wary defensive posture. And apparently he wasn't much of a conversationalist whiz either.

"You hit very hard." She nodded before frowning slightly in puzzlement, her head still cocked sideways.

"From the sky?" And apparently his mouth wasn't capable of keeping up with either of their brains in this fast paced exchange. He shook his head in an effort to clear the cobwebs and pounding headache that was clouding his thoughts and reactions.

"Ahhh, you're very, very heavy. Why are you not dead? No Sekirei could live through that."

He stared back at her in silence. There were two observations and one question he had no idea of how to address. Why was he so heavy? Why hadn't he died? Better yet, why had he fallen in the first place. What was a Sekirei? Was that what he was? No. Sekirei was a passerine type of songbird, genus Motacilla, common name wagtail, a small, ground nesting, colorful insectivore with long tail feathers that move constantly for reasons no one exactly knew why, yet hence the name. Now where had that come from? At any rate he wasn't any damn bird, that was for sure, and this weird looking female at least seemed to be in the mood to talk rather than attack. Maybe it was time for a mutual exchange of helpful information.

"Who?" He blinked as the one word came out of his mouth. He had meant to say who am I. Just call me Zippy, he thought in disgust, because he was really zipping along here on his end of the conversation, now wasn't he?

"Akitsu." She finally responded after a very long pause of her own.

Akitsu was her name? Dragonfly? Who would name their kid dragonfly? His foot long metal talons suddenly retracted back into his wrists as he felt his body relax slightly and then almost tumble sideways in weakness. He done that too? How? He squeezed his hands shut again but got no response. Huh. No conscious control of the blades?

"Who are you?" The alien female named Akitsu asked suddenly.

Oh just great. He was now two down in the response department of oral communication, and she had already anticipated his trying to repeat his previous question. He swiveled his head slowly to look around for some clue as to how to answer her. Something metallic clinked below him when he moved. He strained to pull his chin in and look down. He was wearing dogtags on a silver chain around his neck? Why? Would it tell him who he was? He reached to grasp one and held it up to see it better. It had "Wolverine" engraved on one side. Wolverine, a solitary carnivorous mammal, largest of the weasel family, genus Gulo, Latin for glutton, sometimes called a skunk bear from its heavy musk smell for marking territory and attracting females, also a very ferocious nature in fighting them off and everything else after mating. Nope. Didn't mean a damn thing. What was he? A damn zoologist? The other one said "Logan". Logan, a Scottish name meaning small hollow. That meant even less, but at least it was a recognizable male name.

He slowly rubbed his chin in thought as to just who he was, surprised that he had a curly and soft beard, thicker mutton chop sideburns, and a mustache as if he hadn't shaved for a few weeks. Matter of fact, he smelled pretty gamey as if he hadn't bathed for the same length of time too. He looked back down to see that he was dressed in old blue jeans, a dirty, white singlet undershirt with ribbed texture, and well worn and scuffed, black leather motorcycle boots. Hey, now this was interesting. Along with those wild metal talons that sprouted all by themselves, he seemed to be in damn good shape physically too. Was he some kind of poster boy for body building and fitness? Wait. He better say something before this whirlwind of a conversing female got too far ahead of him. Okay, Logan. Name of Logan. He could go with that.

"I'm Logan. Maybe." He said diffidently, trying the name out in his mind as he voiced it. Nope. No response from back there either. He did a quick pat of his jeans. No wallet. No keys. No money, and there was no use asking Akitsu to loan him a few yen either. She wasn't even wearing panties.

"Logan Maybe-sama," Akitsu repeated slowly as if she was trying that name out in her mind also, nodding slightly to herself as she did so.

"Uhhh, just Logan." He caught himself before he added "I think" so as not to confuse the obviously slow thinking alien woman any further. He had other more pressing problems to contend with here. He was feeling extremely weak and tired. He was thirsty, cold, and hungry. He had no clue as to who he was, what he was, and how in the hell or why he had fallen from the sky and yet lived. He was totally broke with no place to stay. He had a pounding headache, and he had to relieve his bladder soon, very soon. He was also talking to one incredibly sexy, beautiful, young inhuman female with bad breath that looked in little better shape than he was, except she at least knew her own damn name.

Now that he thought about it, maybe she even knew of a warm place that had some food, a bath, and a couple of futons. And some warm beer. Now he was thinking better! No. If she'd known any of that, why would she be here in the shape she was? She was obviously on the run after escaping from somewhere, and probably close by. Matter of fact, whoever might be hunting for her might be looking for him too. Hell, the bastards that had dropped him out of the sky might be looking for him! After all, guys just don't drop out of the sky on most normal Tokyo nights, right? Would they know he could survive the plunge?

He quickly cast a worried glance around for possible pursuit. Nothing looked wrong, still, they were too exposed and sitting ducks out in the open like this. They had to move. They? Since when had he adopted this Akitsu and her problems? On the other hand, that cyrokinetic talent of hers could possibly come in real handy if it did anything as powerful as it felt, like really cool some hot pursuit. A temporary hook up to get safely through the night together wasn't unreasonable, was it? There was nothing long term in anything like that, right? All they had to do was steal some food, get her some better clothes, and find a place to hole up to eat and sleep and maybe even clean up. And beer. Don't forget the warm beer. The thought made his bladder ache so he hurriedly turned to modestly relieve himself while on his knees before turning back around and zipping up.

"Akitsu, come with me?" Logan croaked out slowly then stopped. Now why wasn't his vocal chords following what his brain was telling them to say? How come his body functioned better in other spots? There was another whole sentence that should have been said about them teaming up for filling their immediate and temporary needs.

"I'm broken," Akitsu replied even more slowly, but her eyes were intently focusing on his as if critically measuring his response to that ludicrous statement. Hell, if she was broken, then what was he? She certainly didn't look broken at all, just in bad need of some intense personal hygiene, food, clothing, and sleep. Besides, if she could throw her cold powers around for them like he was pretty sure she could, then she was actually perfect for his immediate needs too.

"Perfect for me," Logan grunted as he staggered to his feet. "Cold, hungry, tired. Need warm bath. Get you clothes, toothbrush. Thirsty. Want warm beer. No money. Head hurts. Let's go."

All right! He had managed to stand up, and he had almost put a long coherent sentence together. This communication and conversation gig was a snap! Now all he had to do was remember how to walk. Whoa! Maybe balance wasn't quite as easy as verbalizing intentions or peeing on the grass.

"Uh," Akitsu grunted as she appeared suddenly by his side and tried to take part of his weight. "You are heavy."

"Yeah, but not your brother," Logan replied automatically as he eyed the buildings across the street from the park's entrance.

Now where had that glib lounge lizard line come from? Any fool with a pair of functioning eyeballs could see they weren't related, but at least he had improved to five words in a thought. Damn. She didn't look it, but this Akitsu was one very strong gal. Things were looking up. Now all she had to do was point them towards the udon noodle joint across the street and next to the alley in the middle of the block. With any luck they'd be able to walk over, waylay the delivery boy, and steal a big meal before he even knew what hit him. The rooms on the top floors of an adjacent love hotel appeared unoccupied too. The curtains were open and the windows dark. Now how could they get up and into one with no money?

"Ummm," Akitsu purred suddenly in female approval as she took a deep sniff of his shoulder, blushed deeply at her forwardness, and then experimentally licked his bare bicep anyway. "Perfect."

"Not on the menu," Logan growled irritably at orally being sized up for a fast meal by a possible alien cannibal. He pointed at the fast food udon restaurant. "Go there."

Seconds later, Logan was huffing heavily to get his breath back. Akitsu had literally squeezed the wind out him by grabbing him around his chest and bounding them both into the air. They had dropped heavily just back of the alley's entrance.

Logan turned his head to silently give an impassive Akitsu a contemplative look with one eyebrow raised. She must be from a heavy gravity planet, have kinetic powers other than those dealing with cold, or she had some kind of invisible wings tucked away somewhere, he groused internally. On the other hand, there was no telling what kind of mutant talents were available on alien worlds, just like here on Earth. Now how had he known that? Was he a mutant? And just exactly how did he know that she wasn't a mutated human but a true off world alien? Did it really matter? Besides, she had very nice, firm, large boobs. They could make up for a lot of potential shortcomings as long as she wasn't a cannibal.

A large delivery boy exited a door some distance behind them, started his motorbike, and roared off down the alley while carrying a big bag of packaged, hot, and delicious smelling goodies. Logan and Akitsu stared stupidly at his receding figure for a few seconds before it registered that a golden opportunity had just slipped past.

Damn! Logan fumed internally. What kind of lousy thieves were they anyway? Man, they had to have better planning! He turned to punch the restaurant's concrete wall with his right fist in frustration. The whole building shook and rattled as large cracks radiated out from where he had struck. Loud screaming came from people inside, and a second later several burst out the front door to run helter skelter in total panic across the busy street. The kitchen door behind them burst open and several overweight males in dirty chef clothing ran down the alley screaming "Earthquake!". Logan blinked at his slightly pained right fist and then at the panicked response he had just created. Now how had he done that? Never mind. The joint was empty.

"C'mon!" Logan growled over his shoulders as he jumped for the kitchen door. Akitsu leaped right behind him. "Get some food!"

There were several pots of already cooked beef, chicken, and pork in various flavored stocks being kept warm on a large steam table. Beside that was a large pot of steamed sticky rice and another large pot of noodles. Logan quickly grabbed the smaller meat pots and summarily dumped them all onto the sticky rice. He grabbed the big pot's handle on either side and nodded at the noodles.

"Grab the noodles! Follow me out! Then jump us up to the roof!" There! Now that was a good plan! The old brain was finally coming around nicely.

Seconds later Logan was bending over the top of the love hotel roof peering down at Akitsu who had jumped back down for her stolen pot of noodles. She grabbed it up, and then paused before heading back into the restaurant. Now what in the hell was she doing? Those idiots still running around yelling "Earthquake!" would return soon when they realized that the ground beneath their feet wasn't moving!

Long and agonizing moments later Akitsu reappeared with a large cloth bag slung over her shoulder and carrying her large pot of udon noodles. One bound up and she was touching down lightly beside Logan. He then turned to peer into her hot pot of noodles to see several big cans of Sapporo beer thrust down into the udon. He looked up to see her giving him a neutral, unreadable look, but there was a trace of smugness around the corners of her mouth.

Akitsu then held out her big cloth bag. It was filled with unwashed clothing, a lot of cash, and a used toothbrush along with a small crinkled tube of mint flavored fluoride toothpaste with whitener added. Whoa! There was even two big wooden bowls, a big wooden ladle, and two pairs of chopsticks. Logan blinked in appreciation. Now here was one really useful and very civilized female! Even if she was a world class thieving alien.

"Eat!" Logan grunted as he sat down cross legged on the roof, put a bowl on his lap, grabbed up the ladle, and reached for the rice pot.

"Eat," Akitsu agreed while kneeling beside the other pot without bothering to ladle anything. She then proceeded to use her chopsticks to happily begin shoveling large wads of udon into her mouth, slurping and smacking her lips in satisfaction as she noisily ate.

Okay, so she wasn't all THAT civilized, Logan shrugged, and well, neither was he. He dumped his small bowl's contents back into the big rice pot, scooted next to her, and offered her the ladle to take alternate scoops out of his rice mixture while he also started snagging udon right out of the big noodle pot. It was soon apparent Akitsu could pack away the groceries at a rate nearly double to his, but he hung in there while chewing and swallowing as fast as he could. He only paused a minute or so later to open two cans of warmed beer and offer her one. He blinked again when she drained the can in one gulp. Man, if anyone deserved the Latin title of glutton, he had just found one. Matter of fact, with her natural athletic strength, animal like eating habits, and potent knack for scavenging, she should be wearing the wolverine dogtags.

Logan finally reached a point where he could eat and drink no more. He sat back with a satisfied belch and heaved a huge sigh of satisfaction. He rummaged through Akitsu's sack, yanking out the clothing. It had three, front button plaid shirts of dubious quality and smell, several pairs of dirty boxer briefs in various sizes, two pairs of patched, torn, and faded blue jeans, one small, stained jock strap, and several pairs of some really gamey smelling athletic socks. The usefulness of the used toothbrush and toothpaste was a given, and the cash totaled a little short of 330,000 yen, about 4,200 dollars as Logan somehow did a quick conversion. Now how had he known the conversion rate? He shook his head in frustrated confusion. He still didn't really know anything about himself or how he had come to be here. He glanced over at Akitsu, still going strong and actually scraping the bottoms of both pots.

"Good." She announced moments later while leaning back and cranking out a belch much louder than his. Then she drained the last two beers, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand after tossing all the empty cans back into the former udon pot along with the bowls, ladle, and chopsticks.

All right, Logan nodded in approval. She did at least possess a small sense of tidiness amidst her overall uncouth dining and dress habits. Now to get them both cleaned up and some badly needed sack time. Listening to the rising angry furor coming from more yelling people in the alley down below, perhaps it was time to put some distance between themselves and all the excitement. There had to be hotels on the other side of the city. They could travel by rooftop, and it would be better to take the evidence of their crimes with them until able to safely dispose of them somewhere non incriminating. Not a bad beginning to their temporary partnership, Logan smiled internally. He turned to nod his approval at Akitsu only to get a downcast, embarrassed, and blushing response in return.

"Why are you embarrassed?" He asked with a small frown of puzzlement.

"Blue eyes," Akitsu finally replied after taking several long moments to think about it. "Never saw them before. They're … interesting."

"I see," Logan shrugged in acceptance, although he didn't. He stood up to stare at Tokyo's skyline around them. There appeared to be several garishly advertised love hotels to the northwest. "Let's jump to one of those. I'll carry our stuff."

Roof hopping several hundred feet at a time by Akitsu Express proved to be fairly efficient, Logan decided, but why didn't it bother him as high up as they were and as far apart as her roof top targets had been? Several leaps had looked impossible at first to him, but she had handled his and her weights almost effortlessly, only grunting in effort when landing and taking more of his unnatural heaviness on her smaller frame. In any event, little time had elapsed since their impromptu picnic on stolen food and their entrance to a marginally clean, love hotel room with a large bed, decent bath, and plenty of mirrors on the walls and ceiling.

Since he had no razor, Logan forsook shaving and concentrated on getting clean after Akitsu vacated the bath and began brushing her teeth at his insistence. He then washed, rinsed, wrung out, and draped all their apparel to dry. Wrapped in an oversized bath towel, he headed back into the bedroom to find Akitsu already under the covers. Shrugging in silent acceptance, he went to the closet and pulled out a spare pillow and blanket to make a simple pallet on the carpeted and slightly rank smelling floor below the room's only window. He let out a huge sigh of weariness after fluffing his pillow, covering up, and settling in for some sleep.

"G'night, Akitsu," Logan yawned sleepily.

"Goodnight, Logan Maybe-sama," was her muffled reply.

He came awake suddenly a short time later in alarm. He relaxed as he realized Akitsu had joined him and snuggled her totally nude body up against his. His left arm had literally been captured between her large breasts as she had grabbed onto him with both hands. Conventional morality didn't appear to be one of Akitsu's strong suits either.

Just before she started to snore gently, he heard her murmur sleepily, "Ummm, big, warm, ummm."

Now fully awake and keenly aware that naked Akitsu was a very disturbing bed partner even if she was a slow thinking alien glutton, he stared up at the night sky while trying to regain some kind of memory of who and what he was as well as how and why he had dropped into Tokyo. Their room was on the back side of the hotel so that the building's shadow cut the city's light glare. The spring breeze must be blowing most of the smog out to sea too because there was an incredibly clear sky above, simply filled with stars. An old sad song suddenly surfaced from the heavy fog obscuring all of his memories. He began to hum as the lyrics came to mind too.

"Starry starry night, paint your palette blue and gray, look out on a summer's day, with eyes that know the darkness in my soul."

He stopped suddenly as he felt a chill wash over him. Yes, although he couldn't actually remember anything, he could feel that there was a vast darkness somewhere deep inside of him, one filled with centuries of war, blood, violence, assassinations, betrayal, needless death, and great love torn from him.

He turned to look at Akitsu's serene face as she began lightly licking his bicep in her sleep. Maybe it might be better if he didn't remember. Tomorrow he would get Akitsu safely settled in a better place to stay, and then ease on out of Tokyo to go, where? There was a yearning inside him to go where a not-human like him could feel at home and avoid any unwelcome pursuit from his past. North, he would go north into the cold woods growing on snow capped mountains. He had a feeling he had lived there long ago in solitary peace. It would be good to go back. Maybe then he could look at starry starry night skies without wondering about how many he had killed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Starry Starry Nights**

**Chapter Two – Second Night**

When he woke up, stood up, and looked around the cheap looking room, he wasn't surprised. The late afternoon sunlight streaming through the lone dirt streaked window and onto the room's mirrored walls and ceiling revealed that Akitsu was gone. A quick search amidst the sun's soft glow also disclosed all of their ill gotten cash, the largest of the front button plaid shirts, the smallest pair of jeans, and the athletic supporter were gone too. However, his cleaned and dried clothes were folded neatly and placed on the bed. The other assorted clothing were also folded and stacked neatly along side his. His boots and the empty and now scrubbed clean eating paraphernalia were below on the floor. He nodded to himself in understanding. So, the alien female with cold powers had taken an unhurried and tidy powder after her sexually enticing signals had been ignored last night.

"So much for not tonight, dear," he softly grunted to himself in amusement even though his head was still throbbing painfully, "I have a killer headache."

Oh well, this certainly wasn't the first time of him being dumped after a one night gig in a sleazy smelling, cockroach infested, catchpenny flop, nor getting rolled for every penny in the process. He paused in an effort to recall any specifics of when that had ever happened before, but shook his head in annoyance when he couldn't. At any rate he was no longer responsible for obtaining better clothes and a safe place for Akitsu to stay before he left Tokyo and headed north into the mountains. She was on her own and probably more better equipped to cope with her situation than he was with his. He wouldn't mind eating before he started traveling though, nor quaffing a few beers for the road.

He scratched his chest, rubbed the back of his still aching head, and yawned before shrugging again in unconcern and shambling into the bathroom to relieve himself. Whatever she was involved in wasn't any of his business anyway. He paused in front of the sink to discover Akitsu had also left the used toothbrush and toothpaste. Now that had been damn considerate of her, he thought as he peered at his eyes in the cabinet mirror. Huh. One pupil was definitely a lot bigger than the other. A severe concussion from his weird "fall from the sky" then, and that would certainly explain the still throbbing headache and total blank in his mind where his memory should be.

He gazed at the "Logan" and "Wolverine" dog-tags dangling amidst the hair on his chest, pulled them up to eye level to examine them more closely, but let them drop when they still meant nothing to him nor triggered anything out of his missing past. There were still too many questions about himself that needed answers, he groused mentally as he headed back into the bedroom to get dressed. Should he take a little time and look around before going to the mountains? Maybe he should find some place to eat that was broadcasting a news channel or at least head to an internet cafe to look up local headlines. Maybe he was already famous in a bad way and didn't know it.

Before dressing, he paused by the bed to stare at his moderately hairy body in the wall mirrors. He definitely needed a shave and his curling black hair trimmed. He guessed he was maybe five foot three or four in height, late thirties in age, no visible scars, marks, or tattoos on his skin, possibly one hundred eighty five pounds in weight, almost no body fat on a heavily muscled yet proportional looking frame, and certainly nothing to be ashamed about in the public bath houses as far as his manhood was concerned either. It was like a sculptor had chiseled out the ideal human male body for an average sized man of centuries past; one highly trained and honed Olympic gymnast who would also be able to successfully compete in weight lifting events as well as be one of the top requested escorts in a host club.

At first perusal, nothing about the way he looked appeared anything but human except it didn't explain how he had survived falling from the sky. Neither did it give any clues to those metal talons that had come out of his wrist, Akitsu's assertion that he was abnormally heavy, his ability to shake a whole building with one frustrated punch, nor the feeling that his physical senses were performing far beyond the normal human ranges. It also didn't explain the growing unease in the back of his mind that he had been a highly skilled killer for a long, long time after humming that old sad song last night.

On his way north to the mountains, maybe it would also be a good idea to test what kind of natural abilities and skills he had, at least how fast and far he could run and how high he could jump in preparation for if and when he encountered future hostile pursuit. After all, hadn't Sun Tzu said, "If you know neither your enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."

Once again he paused as he tried unsuccessfully for a few moments to see where that scrap of knowledge had come from in his mind. And who was Sun Tzu? How could he seemingly just know things but yet couldn't remember how he did? Well screw it, he decided fretfully. Right now he needed some painkillers, some hot food, preferably with a big chunk of meat in the middle, and a beer, maybe ten.

The bedroom door suddenly opened inward, making him flinch badly, and without thinking he found himself crouched several feet away in the far corner with long metal talons sprouted out of his knuckles and crossed defensively before him. Now he had heard the soft whisper of naked feet on carpet approaching down the hallway, but why hadn't it alerted his natural wariness? Was that screwed up too?

Akitsu, carrying a small plastic bag from a pharmacy chain store, stood impassively in the doorway with eyebrows slightly raised and head cocked slightly to one side in curiosity. Her stolen plaid shirt had two buttons closed below her bust line yet exposing cleavage that defied description as well as any future attempts to close another higher button without exploding the fabric. The legs of the baggy and ragged pair of faded jeans she was wearing were rolled up to let her bare feet function, and the waist was bunched together by the elastic jock strap she had used and tied as a belt. It made her weird ensemble appear as if it had a rather unconventional left side coin pouch. A very slight frown made Akitsu's eyes narrow in speculation as she stared at him. Somehow it made him feel as if he had been caught with his hands in some forbidden cookie jar.

"You go, Logan Maybe-sama?" Akitsu asked in a low monotone that had the very tiniest hint of disapproval at any attempt to ditch her.

Ignoring the slightly possessive vibes coming from her, Logan relaxed somewhat to stand upright, flinching again when his talons suddenly retracted back to wherever they had come from in his wrists. He held his fists up to warily exam his knuckles, being careful to eye them from an angle. Who knew when the damn things would suddenly shoot forth and poke his eyes out like that kid and his bb gun at Christmas? Why risk it? Huh. Nothing looking out of the ordinary. No blood on his left hand, but his right had three leaking slits that seemed to be closing slowly on their own. And there were no heavy scars other than spots of white skin between his left knuckles. He tried clenching his fists very tightly. Nothing. He looked up to frown in puzzlement at Akitsu. Her expression had returned to her normal stoic look that indicated she was going to stand there until doomsday, or until he answered her question, whichever came first.

"North," Logan finally nodded as he spoke. Now what the hell? He had meant to say he was going north to hide out in the mountains after getting something to eat. Why hadn't his vocal chords coordinated with his thought processes to make normal speech? Was he brain damaged from his fall or just naturally speech impaired from whatever animal mutation caused those talons to short forth? He tried again.

"Hungry, then go north," he gritted his teeth in monumental mental effort, "hide out. Mountains. Head hurts. Hard to talk."

Akitsu thought this all over with her eyes focused intently on his before finally nodding her acceptance that his current intentions had been pure. She held out her pharmacy bag for his inspection of the contents without moving from the doorway. Her slightly suspicious body language suggested he could go wherever he wanted from now on as long as she was able to protectively keep him in sight. There would be no sneaking away from her either. He frowned at the definite possessive vibes he was getting from her but took the shopping bag anyway. Apparently she had remembered his complaints of a headache, her bad breath, and no razor from last night. Inside was a large bottle of maximum strength painkiller capsules, a multi-pack of cheap, throw away plastic safety razors, a three pack of Tic Tacs, and all their stolen cash.

So, she had made a quick shopping run for what she apparently considered were the bare necessities of life needed to augment their already sparse hoard, and wanted to stay with him longer. Well, what the hell? Why not? With her powers, she could certainly pull her own weight and his too. She was never going to chatter his ears off, and that right there was a giant point in her favor for continued companionship. Actually, it was damned refreshing too.

"Shave now, or go?" Akitsu asked neutrally.

"Shave," Logan finally responded after some effort. Something was definitely wrong with his brain's speech center, he decided irritably.

Shrugging, he opened the package of plastic razors, selected one, and headed for the bathroom sink. He ran the hot water and started soaping the under side of his chin and throat before deciding to keep his mutton chop sideburns and maybe a Fumanchu style mustache just for grins. After a minute or so, he admired the look he had achieved by shaving the area under his lower lip and chin below while having two opposing swaths shaved between his side burns and mustache.

Heh, he chuckled lightly to himself in amusement. All fashion styles truly were cyclical. He had had this particular piratical look back in the 1970's, and now here it was back again! Heh. He began unwittingly humming "Psycho Killer" by the Talking Heads as he cleaned the edges of his mustache, but stopped abruptly as he frowned at his face in the mirror. Why had he remembered that dumb tune from so many years ago? Dammit, there was that sick feeling inside about his dark past again! When would his screwy mind stop screwing with him and just clear up already! Sighing again in annoyance, he continued shaving but in aggrieved silence.

Holding the cheap razor he began scraping upwards on the left side of his throat and immediately nicked himself painfully. Damn. He reached to rub the bloody cut with his free forefinger, but it suddenly healed completely before he could touch himself. Now what the hell? Instant healing? Just like when the talon retracted in his left wrist earlier? Experimentally, he sharply angled the razor to intentionally cause another slit in his jaw's skin. He made a deeper, more painful cut that welled blood for a fraction of an instant before once again healing itself without even a trace of a scar. Now this was just too damn weird, he thought as he peered at himself with deep concern in the cabinet mirror.

He craned his neck around the corner to see if Akitsu was watching and to ask what she thought about what was going on with his face. Her back was turned packing their unused clothes into the cooking pots. Now that he thought about it, why would she know anything about this new anomaly of his anyway? It was sure to baffle her as much as it had him. On the other hand, he could at least finish shaving without being all that concerned about whether he was going to get a nice, clean, close shave rather than commit a self sacrifice.

Moments later, he moved the razor to shave the area of his jaw below his right ear and once again cut himself badly. This time the slice bled profusely and showed little signs of abating. He uttered a small curse under his breath. To stop the blood flow, he reached down for a wad of toilet paper from the dispenser below and beside the bomb site toilet. The left side of his face heals instantly, but the right side doesn't? Was he as lopsided as his eyeballs, wrists, and his thought processes? He frowned down at the razor. No, dummy, he admonished himself, it was his skin that was acting strangely, not the razor. Without thinking further, he sliced the razor across the tip of his left forefinger. The resulting cut healed instantly. A similar slice across his right forefinger tip simply bled.

Okay, now I'm getting somewhere, he realized as he once again stared at the different sized pupils of his blue eyes in the mirror. Lets see, he had been shaving right handed. That meant the right side of his brain controlled the left side of the body and vice versa, right? His right pupil appeared normal size, but his left was much bigger from his concussion. Since the right side of his body wasn't healing as quick as the left, and assuming instant healing was supposed to be another mutant talent for his whole inhuman body, then he was partially left brain damaged. The **s**peech center lies in the parietal lobe of the left hemisphere in the brain for right-handed people so it was little wonder he was having trouble talking. Well, that was as good as theory as any, and only time would tell, but once again how was he able to simply pull scientific facts out of his mind without conscious thought? Was he some kind of science professor when he wasn't assassinating folks?

He stared down at his right forefinger to see that it was in fact healing, albeit much more slowly. He watched in fascination as it took several minutes for the cut to finally close without any trace of damage. The cut below his jaw had also healed without a trace. Could he then assume that the left side of his brain was also healing from the trauma of his fall, just at a much slower rate than whatever damage the right lobe had suffered at the same time? Then could he also assume that maybe this damnable headache would eventually cease, his cognitive functions as well as his memory would begin to operate more normally, and he would eventually be capable of coherent speech again? It sounded logical enough.

In the meantime and maybe before leaving town, shouldn't he be investigating what else he was physically capable of doing in case he was being hunted and not some brain damaged hunter? And if she was determined to hang out with him, he should also ascertain the extent of Akitsu's abilities too. Maybe after they ate, they should take a wary little trip back to the park where he had landed and try a few things out as well as look for any possible clues in the waning daylight as to who and what he was that had been left from his fall. Was a trip back to the park worth the risk of exposure? Yes, with due caution, because where else could he start? They would just have to do a thorough reconnoiter first and approach when the park was empty, because it was entirely possible he could be wanted for a recent murder from the macabre way he was feeling, and Akitsu was possibly being hunted too.

He finished shaving, washed, and wiped his face clean while staring unhappily at his visage in the mirror. It had a rebellious, authority hating look about it, and that wasn't exactly the low profile attitude he wanted to keep. Cops could get very annoying when a stranger didn't fit into societal paradigms, and somehow he had a feeling he didn't like cops much at all to begin with. Somewhere along the line, it would probably be a good idea to get a few fake identities to facilitate travel around town and out into the country. They were also handy for evading police when they were ordered to track down and kill guys like him. Until I.D.'s were obtained, he and Akitsu would just have to be very careful and not draw any attention to themselves. Nothing elicited more unwanted attention from nosy police and today's computer happy society than someone who wasn't electronically plugged into the world's economic and social systems, from big cities to even tiny villages. Solitude and anonymity for time to heal in the mountains was what he needed now, as long as he could get there without killing anyone.

"Why are you troubled, Logan Maybe-sama?" Akitsu's voice startled him anew from the bathroom doorway where she had been quietly watching his self wounding antics.

Logan turned an embarrassed frown at her while trying to frame his response. His gloomy thoughts had occupied his senses and allowed her to startle him badly again, but at least she hadn't sent him crouching defensively over the open hole of the bathroom's ceramic floor toilet.

"I'm scared," he finally ground out while looking down at his fists.

"Of what? Who?" Akitsu's eyes darted quickly between the bedroom's door and window to assess any immediate incoming threats. There were none. This made her turn to look at Logan with an expression using slightly upraised eyebrows that passed for her as extreme astonishment.

"Of myself, Akitsu-chan," Logan sighed softly as something else surfaced from the back of his mind, bypassed the cognitive switch in his speech center, and managed to slip out effortlessly without him thinking; an old saying of his that must have been repeated many, many times. "I'm the best at what I do, but what I do isn't very nice."

Akitsu cocked her head at the sad and self disappointed tones of his voice, churning his words carefully in her mind for their exact meaning. There wasn't a flicker of anything that indicated that his internal fears of who and what he was bothered her in the least. She did blush slightly at his familiarity with her name, however, and immediately decided she liked it.

"You are perfect, Logan Maybe-sama," she eventually stated with her usual simplicity while blushing more.

"Just Logan, Akitsu-chan," he sighed in acceptance of her present adoption of him no matter what nasty piece of work he had been in the past and might still be now. He shrugged again. Hopefully he was a fast healer and would know more soon, but for now, his stomach needed filling. "Hungry. Let's eat."

"Yes. Eat, Just Logan Maybe-sama, hungry too," Akitsu agreed as she turned away to get their stuff.

Logan stared at her for a few seconds and then banged the palm of his right hand off his forehead for needlessly complicating her simple world again.

***scene break***

The helicopter pilot kept a hopefully safe distance away and very wary eye on Karasuba. She didn't appear unhappy as she walked slowly around the ruins of what had been a local police car now parked precariously amidst the top branches of a very large tree. On the other hand, one could never tell just exactly what mood Karasuba was in at any given moment, and stories about her prowess and psychopathic penchant for using that long sword of hers were more than sufficient reason for mere mortals like a lowly MBI pilot not to push his luck in offering any unwanted opinions, let alone catch her notice.

The other two psycho members of MBI's Disciplinary Squad, the full body bandage wrapped Haihane and more normal looking Benitsubasa, were rumored to be almost as bad when it came to losing their cool at the slightest provocation. The pilot kept darting a wary eye at them also. Haihane was conversing with Karasuba in low tones. Although wearing a modest shrine outfit over a pair of dark spandex shorts as if she was a normal, cos playing high school female, the smaller Benitsubasa had just made a totally inhuman and totally "not a school girl" type leap up into the distant tree to more closely examine the savaged car.

Oh shit, the pilot groaned internally, as if he didn't already have enough trouble and forms to fill out from his emergency hard landing. The two MBI enforcers on the ground had just turned and started walking towards him.

"Let's talk," Karasuba began with what the pilot knew was NOT a sweet and pleased grin. "Tell me exactly what happened and what you saw. Leave nothing out. Start from the beginning. It had better be good since you went below MBI's minimum altitude in city airspace without authorization as well as being dumb enough to file a false flight plan, and please, no ass covering bullshit."

"Uh, yeah," the pilot cleared his throat nervously and took a deep breath. Goodbye career, but that was better than getting sliced into human sushi, right? "Well, this is going to sound really weird, but it's the truth. I flew some supplies out to Kamakura Island, and then doctored my flight plan and flew to meet my girlfriend for dinner in the Excel Hotel at Haneda Airport. Then, uhhh, we, ummm, made love in the helicopter before I took off, uhhh, because it turns her on for some reason. I, ummm, always fly with a double sleeping bag rolled and tied for whenever we get the chance, and, ummm, anyway, afterward, I was on my way back to base downtown, a routine flight. I came over the south end of this park above regulation height when all of a sudden my engine intake was totally plugged up by ice. The turbines shattered, and the engine quit. All I could do was pick an open spot in the park where I wouldn't hit anything, that one over there, and auto-rotated in for a hard landing.

"After I hit, I saw a guy out by the street on this side of a huge wall of ice, and he was going absolutely berserk while attacking a police car, slashing at it with some kind of long metal knives on each hand. It was like he was some kind of crazy bad ass that really hated that cop car, ya know? Then he picked it up and tossed it up into the top of that tree back there. Then my helicopter was suddenly encased in ice so that I couldn't get out, but about a minute later the ice simply disappeared. It didn't melt. It just disappeared. The wall of ice out in the street had also vanished, same thing, not melted. The wild guy was gone too. There were some people standing across the street watching, but they all scattered as fast as they could go when they spotted what used to be a police cruiser up in that tree.

"I saw a cop who looked hurt on the ground out by the street. I ran over to help him. He was semi conscious, banged up a little, and mumbling something about a man bear punching him real hard after refusing to show any identification. He looked like his jaw was broken and in a lot of pain. I used the cop's radio to call for an ambulance, and then called our base headquarters on my phone. My commander told me to sit tight until you got here, and uh, that's what I did. Just before you three, ummm, landed, a couple of police commanders asked to me to give them a statement after you had finished your investigation. That's all I know."

The pilot finished his tale with a philosophical and augmentative shrug of his shoulders with his hands spread to indicate that really WAS all he knew. He also gave Karasuba a small wince of apology because her insincere grin had very suddenly turned into a very skeptical frown. Before she could speak, the even more scary looking Haihane with only one eye peeking out of the bangs of her gray hair began chuckling in disbelief.

"C'mon, asshole, get real," Haihane shook her head hard enough to make her short yet shaggy hair sway enough to reveal both eyes. "Mutsu on his best day could never heave a car that far nor that high, let alone go nuts and slice it up that badly beforehand. Besides, why would he attack a cop? All he would have to do is flash his MBI card. No cop in this town would touch him or even hassle him if he did get stopped."

"I know Mutsu," the pilot winced again in apprehension at her total disbelief and fearing multiple rips in his tender skin from those claw thingies on her back that looked very long and razor sharp. "Mutsu wasn't the guy I saw."

"Okay," Karasuba said calmly although the non expression of her obsidian eyes were making the pilot even more nervous than Haihane's claws. "Then describe the guy you DID see. Every detail you can remember."

"Ummm, I was half a block away, and the sun had set much earlier, but, uhhh," the pilot nervously rubbed the back of his head as he looked down at his feet. "He was maybe older and shorter than Mutsu, but built a lot wider with really big muscles, dark hair and a dark, weird looking beard too. He was wearing a sleeveless undershirt, a pair of jeans and boots, and ummm, he didn't have a big sword like Mutsu either. He was tearing that reinforced carbon fiber cop car apart with, ummm, and I know this sounds really wild, but it looked like he had three long blades growing out of his fists. Those blades were about as long as his forearms and seemed to cut through that car's hardened shell like it was soft butter or something. Then he picked the car up and just tossed it over into the tree like it was nothing. Oh, and he was, ummm, howling also, real loud like an enraged animal, ya know? I never heard anything like it, but he definitely wasn't Mutsu. Then the ice covered my copter, and then beast guy was gone."

"What do you mean he tossed the car like it was nothing?" Haihane demanded in continued disbelief.

"He picked it up from the rear," the pilot shrugged apologetically for what he was going to say next, "balanced it on his right hand, and then easily tossed it like he was throwing a big beach ball. It didn't even spin before it hit the tree. From the way he acted, and I know it's one of those new ultra light fuel saving models, I think he still could have thrown it a lot harder if he had really wanted to, maybe even out into Tokyo Bay."

"Did you see a female with short, shaggy cut brown hair?" Karasuba asked suddenly, "and a pink tattoo on her forehead?"

"Nope," the pilot shook his head. "Just the wild guy. Ummm, you do believe me, don't you? I mean, I admit I wasn't where I supposed to be, but I wasn't flying too low. There's no way ice should pack up my engine like that at this time of year. And then that crazy man with the blades, he was real. I got no reason to make anything up about him, and there's that slashed and wrecked car up there, right? I know I'm gonna get fired, but, uhhh, I've told you everything, honest."

"Really worried, eh?" Karasuba chuckled mirthlessly. "You can relax, Fearless. I doubt if you'll even get a little slap on the wrist. You might even get a few extra paid vacation days. If you hadn't let your rather lame and tame love life interfere with your duties, we wouldn't have any information about what happened here at all. You've lucked out, little man. I'm authorizing your flight as of right now. Don't worry about giving any statements to the police either. This is strictly MBI business. You talk to no one, not even your commander about this, got it? Anybody insists otherwise, refer them to me."

The pilot swallowed hard in relief and gratitude as he emphatically nodded his understanding.

"I'm going to send for a sketch artist as soon as we can get you to my office," Karasuba continued thoughtfully as she hit the speed dial on her phone. "I want you to immediately help make me a picture of your wild man as close as you can remember. I'm ordering a car to pick you up. You can spare me a little time from your low kink love life, right?"

"Y, y, y, yes!" The pilot stammered as the deadpan look Karasuba gave him was a definite promise to chop him into shark chum if he didn't cooperate with total enthusiasm. He gulped as she waved him away and started talking very softly to someone on her phone in such a way as to not be overheard. She cut the connection less than a minute later.

The pilot gratefully did his best to retreat into the background of passive eavesdropping obscurity while Karasuba and Haihane began to converse in low tones again. He gave a small shiver as he watched the two murderous looking Disciplinary Squad members casually interact; Karasuba dressed in her usual short skirt, high boots, and long caped uniform of black and gray, Haihane in her combat boots, dog collar choker, and blue, ratty looking, belted kimono over wrapped bandages with crossed claw weapons hanging from a sheath on her back. The pilot knew both females were inhuman aliens, and he had a healthy, well justified fear of them, but then again, MBI paid almost triple wages for him to fly helicopters and keep his mouth shut. It also behooved him to not hear any more than he had to, but curiosity, even the morbid and dangerous kinds, has always been a timeless curse upon the human race. He strained his ears to listen to them anyway.

"The ice events definitely came from the scrapped number," Karasuba mused while idly resting her left hand upon the hilt of her katana. "She's the only one with elemental cold powers, but no one I know fits the description of the crazy guy she seems to have teamed up with, or even comes close for that matter."

"Wonder what made him go nuts?" Haihane absently scratched an itch under her bulging left breast. "Who goes totally berserk when a lousy cop asks for I.D. and why? A pea brain with serious authority issues? And why would the scrap number help protect him? She can't be winged even if she wanted to be. Why did she whack a passing helicopter for no reason too? None of this makes any sense."

Benitsubasa lightly launched herself out of the tree to touch down in front of her companions.

"That cop car is total junk," she announced bluntly while still frowning in disbelief. "It had to take something really, really powerful to rip it up like that. And then to throw it that far and high? Even our strongest power types couldn't do that. What do you think, Chief? Super android? Rogue robot? Is there a male Sekirei we don't know about?"

"Not according to Minaka, no, but who knows?" Karasuba shrugged in return as she turned to gaze speculatively at the roofs of the park's surrounding buildings, "Minaka always seems to have a few deep secrets, and I THINK we have at least found an interesting new development in our Sekirei Plan, whoever and whatever this car killer turns out to be."

"Are we gonna go find and kill him and the scrap number then?" Haihane asked enthusiastically. "Man, it's been awhile since we've had a real tussle! Minaka wants them both eliminated from the Plan, right?"

"No," Karasuba chuckled lightly while caressing her sword's handle at the thought. "If they have any brains at all, those two are in deep hiding right now far away from here and keeping a very low profile. Where would we even start to look for them? Besides, Minaka just wants us to quickly collect as much information as we can about them. He seems to think this new team might be kind of fun in competition with all the others in Phase Three."

"Is that so?" Benitsubasa grimaced as she primly smoothed her long pink tresses away from her face. "From the looks of that car and the range of that cold user, I'm not quite as keen to fight them as our mummy dummy here. I think a gal could get her clothes ripped off and seriously pounded. On second thought, that might be kind of fun too if done right."

"Always thinking about your virgin crotch, Flatty-chan?" Haihane accused her small breasted cohort while mockingly thrusting out her own generous bosom.

"At least I have brains enough to," Benitsubasa began heatedly.

"Enough," Karasuba said simply to cause both of her subordinates to flinch into silence. "MBI's car is here. Let's go see if we can find some video coverage of what happened here and at least get a sketch picture of our wild man. Minaka wants something visual posted all over the city immediately to stop our beastie boy from leaving town with the scrap number. To keep everyone from running away during Phase Three, MBI is going to be locking this town down real tight very soon anyway. We'll just get a little practice at it by keeping this new power couple inside the city limit game. Hey, fly boy, pull your over sized ears in, and get moving to our ride. I'm a curious type too."

The helicopter pilot gave her a weak, sheepish, and sickly half smile of obedience as he turned away and hunched his shoulders in anticipation of some kind of punishment for eavesdropping. Damn, he kicked himself mentally as he half ran for the perceived safety of the approaching MBI car. He should have kept a lot safer distance away from these cold looking, alien female psychopaths.

***scene break***

Warily watching the vehicle recovery process in the park from the rooftop of the building where they had eaten the night before, Akitsu hummed a tune she had heard her Ashikabi softly sing to himself hours earlier in a fast food restaurant. She glanced back over her shoulder to make sure he was still resting peacefully on their new futon and still hidden in the night shadows made by a partially clouded moon and the roof's elevator housing. He was still stretched out on his back and breathing normally while the cold aura she was maintaining around him continued to cool his fever. He was going to be well soon because before they had eaten, he had told her that his body healed abnormally fast since he wasn't human either. He had also told her not to worry about his hard fall from the sky the night before because he was healing from the after effects of that also. That meant everything was okay now and letting her hum his tune to herself in contentment.

Akitsu wasn't sure why her Ashikabi had gotten so sick and passed out after he had defeated the bad wheeled machine for ramming into the largest ice wall she could make. Perhaps that was one of the after effects of his fall, as was his surprise that she could instantly make an ice wall three stories high, a block long, and half a block thick. Even knowing of his healing ability, her heart had stopped in fear after he had tapped the uniform human's jaw who had been in the vehicle, angrily thrown the vehicle marked "Police" away, and then her Ashikabi had suddenly collapsed while still some distance away from her.

Unluckily, she had been defeating the bad flying machine that had attacked at the same time. Luckily, a large, soft, rolled up, and tied futon labeled "North Face Dolomite Double 3S BX Sleeping Bag" had come out one open side of the bad flying machine as it had spun in and hit the ground in the park. The rolled futon had bounced and literally came to rest at her fallen Ashikabi's feet. It had only taken an instant for her to leap to him, grab their new bedding, and jump up here to safety, make him comfortable, and then watch for further attacks from the bad people below for whom she felt not one twitch of sympathy. The bad machines and the bad men operating them deserved their fates for daring to upset her Ashikabi and making him sick and unhappy again. Soon though, her Ashikabi would be feeling better as he had promised, and that was good.

Akitsu frowned and stopped humming as she watched a huge wheeled machine with a large, long arm go across the park and roll up to the tree where the dead small vehicle had landed. She hated the fact that anything had made her Ashikabi unhappy, or had it just reminded him of some unhappy time in his past? She could feel his troubled unease about something, something that made him look very sad even when he was softly singing his special song, and this bothered Akitsu greatly.

A loving Sekirei should try to fix her Ashikabi's troubles, right? Was there something she could do to make her Ashikabi happier within himself? She turned today's events over in her mind for clues. After they had both eaten a lot of ramen noodles, drank a lot of beer, and watched the evening newscast, he had seemed to be in a much better humor than when he had been shaving earlier. He had still been in that good mood while they had slowly walked completely around the park after the sun set, and then went back to carefully examine the spot where he had fallen from the sky in the evening light. He had seemed happier, but he had been humming his song then too.

The only really sour note of unhappiness had been when he had stopped humming and began rattling off some kind of foreign words while measuring the depth of the impression in the park's turf his body had made. He had called those strange words mathematical calculations using empirical data, assumptions, crude measurements, and approximations. Akitsu had no idea what any of those words meant except that they had caused him to unhappily exclaim, "I weigh over three hundred pounds? No way!" She also had no idea why learning how much he weighed had made him unhappy, but his being unhappy about anything was bad. Therefore, one thing she could do was to find a way to protect him from those bad words in the future, even though she loved the weight and muscular feel of his exciting body, as well as his very heady natural smell and taste.

Then they had proceeded to carefully search the area for anything that might have fallen with him. Even though nothing had been found, his overall good humor had remained, and that had been good. Better still had been the praise he had given her after he had asked her to perform for him. She had done her very best in jumping, running, lifting heavy objects, and then doing all kinds of tests on her ways to send forth the coldness that was always surrounding her. He had seemed very happy then as well.

At first his requests had seemed a little odd; frost and defrost a tree, then several trees, just frost the tip of one cherry blossom petal high in a distant tree, freeze the little stream's waterfall but not the pond and vice versa, and make different sizes and shapes of ice appear and then disappear. Then he had asked her to do the things she was really good at doing. She had made and disappeared all kinds and sizes of ice walls, balls, and domes as quickly as she could in all the different directions he had called out, sometimes also using her thick ice creations as targets and blasting them with rolling barrages of different sized ice shards.

He had praised her each time she had done exactly what he had asked and made her feel so happy that such a perfect Ashikabi had found and accepted her even though she was broken and couldn't truly be everything a normal Sekirei should be for him. That fact had only made Akitsu feel even more determined to make up for her shortcomings for his sake. What all she lacked in the normal love bonding of her kind would be made up for in her dedication, dedication to always do everything he asked and in caring for and protecting him from all harm and unhappiness at the same time. That would be the way she could always express her deep love for her Ashikabi, especially if he kept asking her to do what she did best, and make him very, very happy; that is, as long as the bad people left them alone.

His tests of her best had all been great fun until the smaller vehicle now up in a park tree had rammed into her last and largest ice wall, slowed to a stop, and a uniform human man had approached while demanding something called identification from her Ashikabi. Akitsu didn't know what an identification was, but it must have been another bad word for it made Just Logan Maybe-sama unhappy again. That had become bad for the uniformed human man who had suddenly started pushing her Ashikabi towards the bad small wheeled vehicle. The bad human man had gotten tapped in the jaw for his efforts. At the same time the very noisy and bad flying machine marked "MBI" had tried to attack Akitsu's Ashikabi with its whirling blades from above and that was never going to be allowed to happen, ever.

Akitsu turned her attention back from the tree being freed from its dead wheeled vehicle to watch the human men finish replacing the bad flying machine's loudest part. They climbed down and walked to the back of a big rolling vehicle parked on the street. Akitsu wasn't sure, but she thought it was called a truck. It was a bad truck because it had the exact same "MBI" letters marking its sides like the bad flying machine. All things marked "MBI" were bad, even the building where she had been broken and hurt so badly by bad "MBI" people. The repair men threw some long metal turning devices with handles they had used to tighten things into a large metal box with a lid and turned to make spinning motions with their arms at another man sitting inside the bad flying machine and wearing a big, round plastic hat. A familiar whining/roaring/whupping sound began and started increasing while the four long knives on top of the bad and noisy flying machine began to whirl faster and faster. Soon it would go up in the air again.

Akitsu's eyes narrowed slightly in speculation of whether she should send more ice into the loudest part again so its big knives would stop whirling and wouldn't be able to threaten her Ashikabi as it had earlier, or should she wait and see what direction it went once up in the air? Better to wait, she decided finally, and let her Ashikabi rest. He needed to recover from the raging fever that had made him fall asleep earlier on the street after he had killed and thrown that bad smaller vehicle up into a tree. She could always take him and their stuff and jump them to safety if the need arose, and kill the bad flying machine again too, but for now she wanted him to remain sleeping and comfortable. She nodded in satisfaction as the bad flying machine rose, turned a quarter circle while hovering, and then flew off towards where the sun had set away from her and her Just Logan Maybe-chan.

Ummm, she thought in satisfaction. She liked the thought of him being her Just Logan Maybe-chan since it was a lot more personal and warm feeling than Just Logan Maybe-sama. It felt warm inside just like when he had called her Akitsu-chan. She wondered if that made them ready for mating now. She didn't know how mating was accomplished, but she felt very sure that her Ashikabi knew the meaning and application of the word. She had heard other similar words whispered behind her back by other young men looking at her with mating signs in their eyes as they had all stood in line to get their food; words like, sexy, big tits, virgin, hot ass, fun bags, and many others. They had all ceased their murmuring when her Ashikabi had silently glared around him. She would have to ask him what those words meant after they mated, and if any of those words could be used by her to make him feel happier.

Akitsu turned her head to see that the big machine with the long arm was rolling away with the bad small vehicle dangling from a big set of wires attached to the arm. All the men on the ground and in the bad truck seemed to be leaving the park too. Akitsu still had no idea why her Ashikabi had gotten so angry at the smaller wheeled vehicle marked "Police", nor the uniformed man trying to push her Ashikabi into the smaller vehicle's back door. Maybe everything marked "Police" was bad also and had hurt her Ashikabi like everything marked "MBI" had hurt her. He had muttered something about "Police" to himself earlier while shaving and that had been bad. She could tell from the unhappy way he had looked at himself and purposefully cut his face and fingers while shaving. Happy people didn't hurt themselves like that. There was another thing she could do to make her Ashikabi feel better and happier, she realized. From now on, she wouldn't allow anyone to ever hurt him again, not the bad "Police" people, the bad "MBI" people, nor any of their bad machines.

With these decisions made and the park being emptied, Akitsu made a low crouching dash to her sleeping Ashikabi's side. She took a quick inventory of their belongings to make sure she had forgotten nothing. There were two large cooking pots for rice and noodles, three smaller sauce pans, two wooden bowls, two sets of chopsticks, one wooden ladle, one toothbrush, on tube of toothpaste, one bottle of painkillers, one sack of plastic razors, three packs of Tic Tacs, towels, soap, and shampoo taken from the love motel, and a plastic sack of money. She didn't know how much the money was worth because she couldn't count that high, but it didn't matter. Her perfect Ashikabi could, and he had already said she was perfect for him without any big counting skills. That was good enough for her. Besides, they could always find ways to take what they needed anyway, preferably from all the bad people trying to hurt them. And more beer. She should always remember to get more beer.

She unbuttoned her uncomfortable shirt, unzipped one side of this strange two sided futon that acted as its own cover, and cuddled her body sideways against her Ashikabi's big warm frame. His fever had abated with his healing ability, and that made her happy. Using the left side of his big chest for a pillow, she threw her left leg over his, and her left arm over his muscular abdomen. She took a deep satisfied breath of his perfection and noticed that the formerly half clouded sky above them now seemed as if it had been ripped open to let even more stars appear along side a very beautiful moon. Akitsu began humming Just Logan Maybe-chan's tune to herself in total contentment again, and without realizing it was the melody of an old sad song called "Starry Starry Night".


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's note: ... please see profile for further info ... can't get hotlinks into this page for some reason**  
**_

**Starry Starry Nights**

**Chapter Three – Third Night**

Itsu. He came half awake feeling her total tender devotion and care for him. Her long, gentle, caressing fingertips running through his hair as she softly crooned a nameless love song made him exhale deeply and simply revel in her healing adoration. Once again he was back with her beside Jasmine Falls, resting with his head in her lap after another simple countryside picnic in their favorite hideaway. How many peace filled evenings had they come to eat and make tender passionate love here? How many moonlit nights had they lain simply holding each other and staring up at the heavens in all of its starry majesty? The peaceful background roar of falling and foaming water, the heady scents of cherry blossoms, blooming water lilies, cut grass, and Tokyo's airborne crud from vehicle and pedestrian traffic all combined to let him completely relax and give himself over to her once again. Itsu, my sweet love, he sighed in total contentment as her tummy gurgled in his ear. Itsu, how could you still be hungry after eating all that huge picnic? Oh. Oh yeah. You're eating for two now, aren't my you love. Itsu. My sweet, sweet Itsu.

He turned his head to plant soft, nibbling, and licking kisses on her bare abdomen just below her navel and was once again amused at how very sensitive her muscular body had always been here, and for some reason even more so now that she was pregnant. Her sudden tightening of her abdominal muscles, the quick and ragged intake of breath, heightened vanilla bean muskiness, and immediate increase of body heat was immensely gratifying to his innate male pride. Every man should have this ability to instantly excite his life mate, he thought while feeling his own stiffening response to her reaction. From the way she had now tightened her hold on his head with both hands and leaned her sensitive bare breasts into his face for his lips and tongue's soft and loving ministrations, very soon they would make sweet, mutually joyous, and soul satisfying love to the eternal watery music of their Jasmine Falls as they had done so many times before.

Wait. Tokyo's airborne crud? Vanilla bean muskiness? Cut grass beside Jasmine Falls? Muscular abdomen? Itsu never had taut muscles, and she had always had the mild savory smells of fresh boiled rice about her too. A sharp lance of groaning sorrow stabbed into his now aching heart as partial yet much crueler memories surfaced. This place wasn't Jasmine Falls at all, and, and, damn.

Itsu was dead. Murdered. Her unborn child ripped from her womb. By, by whom? Itsu's village folk? No, once believed, but that didn't seem right now. The local demon Muramasa? Winter Soldier? Maybe? Who were these names? What had they looked like? Enemies? He grappled in his mind to wring forth the details of his years and years of uncertainty over his sweet Itsu's foul murder and his all consuming thirst for her soul's revenge. There's something. What? He had met their supposedly dead son turned supervillian decades later. Daken, a name of perfidy and a total shame to his dead mother's memory, right? He groaned in irritated and wilting disappointment. Daken. The perfect poster boy for how to royally piss off a parent, but there was more, maybe? He couldn't remember. Damn.

He cried out to Itsu's long dead spirit. He felt unaccustomed tears of deep sorrow begin to form at the edges of his still closed eyes. I'm so sorry Itsu, so sorry for failing you, befouling your gentle love with my years and years of human war and assassinations, then fighting in the Superhuman Civil War followed by endless and now seemingly mindless killing, murder, blood, and soul sickening intrigue for what? What had it all accomplished? Nothing, and because of him and her being attached to his foulness, the complete worthlessness of his life had killed a sweet, innocent, and harmless woman that he had loved with all his heart. It still hurt, hurt terribly, and would forever ache deep in his heart. Itsu, his wife, was dead.

On the other hand, that all begged the very interesting question of whose vanilla bean flavored, very alive, and sensitive nipple was he so lustily sucking on now?

"Hey, Lover Boy! Got milk?" An amused, husky, low alto voice asked from the opposite side of the large mammary warmth now nearly suffocating him in its instinctive urgency to encourage more and harder suction. This new question was followed by some very entertained female chuckling.

He ripped his mouth away with an audible wet pop and tried to blink his eyes into full wakening. He squinted up at the female newcomer's hazy, half bent over outline against the backdrop of a setting sun filtering through some cherry trees behind her. The hair was much too long and in a sort of "shaggy in front and tied back ponytail behind" style, and it was some off gray color instead of black, but the amused face, HER face was incredibly familiar. Damn. She had caught him again?

"Mariko?" He croaked out guiltily. Wait. No. This couldn't be HER. Being with him had killed HER too, hadn't it? If not, or if SHE had come back to life somehow, why was SHE standing over him wearing a rather brief skirted uniform complete with long black boots and a sword that resembled an over sized katana? SHE also had intriguing, muscular thighs, and a very nicely, shaped rear end, not to mention the lacy, black thong panties. Tits looked too small for sexual perfection though. That almost clinched it. The real Mariko had much more body symmetrical breasts, even erring a wee tad on the too large side, hadn't SHE? Besides, he had killed HER himself at HER request after SHE had been poisoned, maybe? That all was cloaked in the thick haziness still heavily cloaking the back of his mind. What was true, and what was maybe falsely implanted? He had been duped and used so many times in the past. Still, this female with the hard warrior vibes standing above him sure looked like she could almost be Mariko's doppelganger, at least in the face anyway; if it was really hers since the smiling looked a little fake. What was with the sword? Had Mariko ever? Wait, this new gal's body heat wasn't human either, and she smelled wrong.

"Mariko?" He croaked again while squinting harder, just to be sure he wasn't actually dealing with HER.

"Not hardly." The rather tall and leggy sword-woman snorted derisively as she straightened up to shift her attention to above him. "Hey Aki-chan, turn off the icy reception. I'm not here to kill either one of you, yet. While you're at it, get some clothes on. This IS a public park you know, or maybe you don't. At any rate, MBI doesn't want too much adverse attention around here right now, especially after last night. So put your shirt on even if you can't button it."

Aki-chan? He turned his head back and leaned away a little to blink up at huge bare breasts with enlarged pink nipples above him. He leaned further away to finally see the female's face that was still holding his head in her lap. Oh yeah, Akitsu. Not Itsu. And Akitsu looked incredibly pissed off. Her eyes had narrowed slightly and the cold aura surrounding her hot naked body and him was now filled with long daggers of ice aimed at the female newcomer. What was that? Not here to kill them, yet? Time to ask Akitsu for a little intel on his current situation.

"Who is she?"

"Karasuba. MBI dog. Funny sometimes. Other times not. Put shirt back on?" Akitsu shrugged while waving away her ice daggers with a small left hand movement that almost looked like a dismissal.

"Dog? Well, bow wow," Karasuba chuckled as her facial expression formed another phony, slit eyed grin. "You know, I'd rather be known as a friendly, volunteer messenger service that also deals in a few, not-for-profit, and freelance side ventures requiring extreme unction upon certain momentous and satisfying occasions. In this particular case though, you two can just think of me as a mildly interested and yet totally harmless delivery girl. By the way, Big Guy, who and what are you? And why are you hanging out in a park with this damaged and naked little bird?"

"Don't know, don't know exactly, and she's got a great set of tits? Some dog must have eaten my homework. My computer crashed during a violent thunderstorm and deleted all my data files because my Chinese knockoff surge protector failed. A volcano erupted, causing a tidal wave that sent a pirate ship crashing into my tree house whereupon a roof support branch fell to clip me into resulting amnesia. I just finished sleeping off a very hearty drunk complete with blackouts and D.T.'s. Pick one, run with it, and kiss my ass for asking anything else, because I just don't know."

He yawned mightily as he sat up and nonchalantly scratched the back of his head with his left hand and his chest with his right. He looked down. Dog tags? Logan and Wolverine dog tags? Huh, weird, but since she most probably wasn't Mariko reincarnate, why in the hell should he tell Miss Fake Face anything anyway? He at least he knew he didn't know her, nor did he care to. He shook his head a little to unsuccessfully clear the persistent cobwebs in his mind. Oh, oh yeah, last night's attempt to blow this town had met with an epic fail, especially in the keeping a low profile department. Geez, that dumb flatfoot had pissed him off! And tried to shift the blame for his lousy driving! He had definitely overtaxed his muscles too. Stiff. Sore. Man, he was damn hungry again. And very, very thirsty.

"Logan Maybe-chan talking better?" Akitsu leaned disturbingly close to him while she peered intently into his eyes. Itsu had been a real natural beauty, but this gal was simply incredible to behold, especially in the buff, but all the Sapporo beer cans strewn around her were empty. Where had they come from, and why hadn't she saved a few for him?

"Huh, I am?" He blinked in return as he thought about his last speech to Fake Face. "Well yeah, I guess I am, aren't I? Huh, interesting."

Logan, that's right. He HAD been called that sometimes. Maybe-chan? That was definitely wrong and needed some simplification.

"You, Aki-chan." He reached out with both hands and gently hefted Akitsu's very large and yet surprisingly firm and high set breasts. He then slapped his chest three times with both hands. "Me, Logan-chan. Okay?"

"Okay, Logan-chan," Akitsu nodded while blushing a very deep yet very pleased scarlet.

"Oh please," Karasuba sighed while shaking her head in still phony grinning disgust. "The old Me Tarzan, you Jane routine? How totally off the menu from Café Passé. What the hell, Aki-chan? Are you trying to act like some simpering virgin now?"

"Virgin?" Akitsu frowned slightly while drawing a total blank at the word's meaning. "I'm a broken Sekirei."

"Really? Well, your working parts seemed to be functioning normally a few minutes ago from where I stood," Karasuba noted wryly, and then her phony grin descended into a genuine, small, but still sarcastic smile. "Actually, you two looked rather HAWT when I got here, sort of like a one act play set in a cow pasture where one Innocent Mary Moo intensely surrenders to Lecherous John Bull. What kind of mustache is that you got there anyway, Sport?"

"It's a Fumanchu."

"Interesting. I can't tell whether it looks really stupid or kinda fellatio sexy in a Chew Man Chew sort of way."

"You know," Logan let out a mildly suffering sigh as he slowly stood up. No need to alarm the snarky sword wielder into something hasty and possibly get Akitsu hurt in the process, even though he was pretty sure the cold wielder could give as good as she got. Why risk it? On the other hand his patience was being taxed a little here. He yawned again.

"On his worst days, and he didn't have any good ones, Conan O'Brien actually had a little more witty repartee going for him than you. What are you here to deliver? Tell us O Raven Feather whose ego resembles a light and fluffy plume plucked from an outsized ostrich's ass. Something lightweight like your underwhelming conversation and intellect that's accurately indicated by your name?"

"What?" Karasuba's small smile now faded into cold eyed contemplation as if she had suddenly discovered a talking cockroach that was begging to be squished, and then she frowned slightly in feigned surprise. "Geez, you're short."

"And you, are a 34 B cup, at the very max," Logan cocked his head sideways while squinting at her chest with one eyebrow raised. "We seem to be living in a world of imperfection, now don't we Fake Face? I repeat, all these little mutual admiration amenities and ritualistic insults aside, what are you delivering? Nice panties by the way, but I think they badly need washed from the smell. You do too."

Karasuba's left hand twitched on the handle of her katana as anger kindled deep in her obsidian eyes, and yet this nervy little ape simply stared back at her, totally unafraid and even uncaring. His deadpan expression and deep blue eyes only held just a hint of curiosity in return. Now was that out of his total ignorance of who and what she was, or was it because he was confidant in his abilities to use his raw and already witnessed superhuman powers to simply kick her ass? It didn't matter, although the concept for him to try the latter was interesting. She was only here for one purpose, and besides, Akitsu's ice daggers were back all around her still nude body, ready to launch and doubled in number. Now was not the time to get involved. She had another little extreme mission that promised to be more entertaining later anyway.

"I'm only here to give you a phone, Mouth, and that's all," Karasuba relaxed and fished a small cellular hand held out of her brief skirt's small right side pocket. She flipped it open, hit a speed dial button, and gave it to Logan. She then stepped back a pace with her hands up in a peace gesture towards Akitsu before stoically folding her arms across her chest. She had been told to wait until her boss was done talking to this guy before being free to pursue other projects. She would wait. Matter of fact, now that she thought about it, it might be very interesting to stick around and hear this little exchange.

"Greetings Sir! Welcome to the Sekirei Plan! By the way, to whom do I have the pleasure in speaking?"

Logan silently stared at the too loud phone's video screen to see some kind of wild haired, four eyed, geeky looking older guy. Judging by the too high collar of his ankle length cape, this weirdo was trying his damnedest to put on airs as a super mad, super genius scientist type with grandeur delusions of world domination.

"Who is this ass clown?" Logan looked up at Karasuba to see her frown slightly in disbelief as her lips twitched in silent amusement.

"My name is Hiroto Minaka, CEO and founder of MBI!" The phone's figure announced with almost glowing excitement. "You, unknown sir, haven't been watching the news lately at all, now have you! How refreshing if perhaps a bit unwise! But I digress! Since it appears our broken yet lovely and very nicely endowed Akitsu has chosen YOU to be her partner, I am hereby granting YOU full Ashikabi status!"

"Yeah?" Logan yawned unimpressed as he reached to rub and work his still aching neck with his off hand. "Does that involve a couple of steaks, sticky rice, a little stir fry, udon noodles, a twelve pack or two, and a couple of Cohiba Behike cigars for afterward?"

"Of course! If you'll just supply me your name and current address, you will immediately be sent a complete fighting wardrobe for Akitsu, as well as your own personal MBI cards with unlimited credit! They will also be very valuable in showing as I.D. to the Tokyo Police Department in case you have a few more interesting escapades like last night! By the way, we're keeping the Sekirei Plan's battle royale a secret, and you are now obligated to maintain that confidentiality whether you want to or not. Otherwise MBI will have to make an unpleasant visit, but that's just a small detail in the overall glorious game you have just joined! Oh, and please don't try to leave Tokyo. It would be very unwise if you tried. For now, just relax and be grateful that I have granted you and Akitsu the chance for winning your ascension together into the New Age of the Gods! So, our newest although apparently a little older than our normal Ashikabi, what is your name?"

"I dunno," Logan shook his head and sighed wearily. Trying to make him stay in Tokyo? Oh man, what was with all these negative waves right when a guy wakes up? And making up a really dumb sounding name for naïve school boys supposedly fighting with and against female alien mutants and their partners in some lame game that sounded like a pointless college hazing ritual? Ashikabi. Even that sounded like some kind of overcooked noodle dish. Why couldn't they be called something really cool like Sun Ray Samurai or Moon Beam Musha? Well, enough of this crap. What was one more idiotic and meaningless battle of mutants, alien or otherwise, manipulated into fighting for some never ending parade of overly ego filled and tyrannical dictator wannabees bent on gaining fleeting supremacy over this totally screwed up world? He was hungry. And a couple of beers with a really mellow smoke afterward sounded good too.

"Come, come my good man! My time is valuable! You'll need your MBI cards for the game!"

"Ehhh, hey Micky, you and MBI can go fuck yourselves." With that Logan squeezed his hand shut and crushed the phone into tiny fragments. He let them carelessly drop while simultaneously sniffing and dusting his hands clean. This Karasuba/Mariko doppelganger REALLY needed a bath and some mouthwash. She smelled like yesterday's too garlic laden lasagna and stained underwear with a rather faint natural female musk of what? Clove? He looked over at Akitsu still watching over him protectively in stunning but perhaps not restaurant acceptable nakedness. At least she smelled nice and fresh. "Let's go eat, Aki-chan. Wanna get dressed first?"

"Dressed, hungry," Akitsu repeated while nodding her agreement. She bent over to pick up her plaid shirt and jock strap tied jeans, put them on, and began rolling up their soft double futon. Her eyes were carefully cataloging the rest of their possessions as she did so, while never turning her back on Karasuba.

When the sun had gotten too annoyingly hot earlier in the afternoon, she had jumped everything including her still sleeping Just Logan Maybe-chan, no, Logan-chan, into the shade of the park's cherry trees beside the pond's waterfall. After bathing them both, she had dressed him again and settled in to patiently wait for him to wake up even though she had gotten very hungry in the process. She had stayed that way, only making a very fast beer run to the convenience store on the corner for a couple of six packs and some snacks because she had gotten too thirsty and hungry in the day's heat. Now he was awake, very amorously so, and they would eat properly. This was good. And he desired to mate with her as much as she wanted to mate with him. She blushed very warmly all over at this remembrance. This was even better. The only blemish on the whole idyllic afternoon had been Karasuba. If the bad MBI's dog even twitched her hand on that sword in front of Logan-chan again, Akitsu would kill her.

"Hey, could you repeat that for me? I got a couple of pals that work with me that would laugh their asses off to hear what you just said to Minaka."

Logan gave Karasuba a very bored look yet dutifully repeated his reply to Minaka into her video phone's recorder.

"Succinct," Karasuba gave a low chuckle after a long silence of appreciation, "and yet colorfully expressive. Kind of like a very cheap wine. Minaka is now in a foaming rage if I know any," She paused to fish out and answer her own phone. "Yeah, I'm still here. Sure plenty of time. Okay. I'll explain it to them."

Logan stretched his arms out and twisted about to work out some more kinks and yawned again while totally ignoring Karasuba. What the hell had happened to him? A fall from an altitude high enough to reach terminal velocity? That implied being kicked, shoved, rolled, or just plain dropped from a plane or even a dirigible. On purpose or by accident? In ignorance of his mutated healing ability or not? And he could somehow now sense that his normal healing powers were operating better yet somewhat unevenly and partially delayed. Why? Some kind of metallic/radiation poisoning before the fall maybe? Mystical spell, demonic attack, or wounded by a some specialized weapon? Something he had eaten? Bad shellfish/raw oyster reaction or a rotten anchovy pizza? Combination of any of these? He tried to remember anything about what had happened to him before awakening in this park, but still drew a total blank. Hell, he was only getting just a very few disjointed snippets from his long ago past, and none that specifically told him much, let alone who or what he really was, but he could feel a small improvement from yesterday. At least he could talk somewhat coherently again. And he had remembered Itsu, a memory to greatly cherish now that he had it back, even if it did hurt. Ahhh, Itsu.

"Where are you two headed?" Karasuba's low voiced question snapped him out of his mind exploring reverie. "I wouldn't mind getting a bite to eat and a beer or two before I do a few more small chores tonight."

"Are you still here?" Logan frowned in mild surprise as he turned to look into Karasuba's half lidded and still amused eyes.

"Yeah. Lucky you, huh? It seems the boss wants me to fill you in on a few minor details you missed in your chat, and he wants to know a few himself."

"Sounds to me like Micky needs a deep lesson in the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Maybe you do too."

"Oh really? Well, lay it on me Professor. I'll relay it to him. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to hear it."

"Knowledge," Logan paused to get the old saying right in his mind, "is knowing that the tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to use it in a fruit salad."

"And that means?" Karasuba chuckled again. Whoever and whatever this absolutely fearless Logan turned out to be, he was certainly entertaining, and even kind of cute for a short, muscle bound, and very mouthy ape. There was a very subtle yet enticing smell about him too. He even had eyes colder than hers, and definitely didn't seem to be girl shy either. Wonder what this possibly amnesiac Logan would be like in the rack if a gal got the sudden itch? And who was Mariko? Well, the boss wanted more info. She now had his first name, maybe, and the name of an old girlfriend as well as several close up phone photos that were much better than the pictures taken by the geosynchronous satellites overhead that had found the pair for her earlier. A few beers, maybe even quite a few, would be sure to garner a few more facts bout this intriguing, wise ass, and short Ape Man.

"It means, the more you and your boss know about me, Fake Face, the wiser you both would be to just leave me alone, in town or leaving. Okay. I've heard enough of your egotistical bullshit on an empty stomach. Aki-chan and I are hungry. So, run along and freelance or something." Logan turned his back in total dismissal and began looking around for a place close by to eat. Hmm, better stay out of the fast food udon joint across the street. He wanted a nice peaceful meal, and those boys were just a little too excitable.

"Woo, and here I thought I had made such a genuine effort to be sociable even if I had to invite myself along. Besides, I thought you liked looking at my panties. Let's go eat together, and I'll let you peek at them again later. How about it?"

Logan rotated his head and gave her a slow, head to toe appraisal over his shoulder while rubbing his chin and mulling it all over.

"Are you buying?" He finally asked in a bored tone. "And can you keep your damn snarky mouth shut while we eat?"

"You have GOT to be the nerviest little bastard I've ever run across," Karasuba shook her head slowly in amused disbelief, "and one needing a little knowledge and wisdom regarding me too I think, but hell yes, why not? MBI can buy, and I like silent peaceful meals too. Let's jump your homeless looking stuff up on that love hotel roof across the street, and then we can head uptown to my private room in a Kobe beef steakhouse. I'll even have a few nicer outfits for Aki-chan delivered while we're there. Does this also mean you might still want to peek at my panties later too?"

"Not hardly," Logan returned coldly as he turned away again and let Akitsu put her left arm around his waist while she gripped their packed and stacked big pots in the other. "Why would I? Aki-chan looks a helluva lot sexier, prettier, and she isn't even wearing any. Smells better, and keeps her mouth shut too."

"This job really sucks at times," Karasuba grimaced after Akitsu made her leap to the rooftop across the street. "Then again, killing this big asshole later is now going to be a lot more rewarding."

Logan turned his head to look back into the peasant smelling park, not to notice Karasuba/Mariko still standing tensely in barely controlled anger, but to once again let his mind visualize Jasmine Falls, starry moonlit nights, happy sunny days, and his lovely, sweet wife that had made him so happy in the long ago past. Itsu.

***scene break***

"You're a vagabond sailor!" Karasuba sang lustily as she staggered against the right side of a highly irritated Logan trying to count his latest windfall. "All your gals call you Sport! And you're a man of action! Any storm in the port!"

"PORT!" Akitsu enthusiastically shouted in sing-a-long agreement if not quite in tune. She was also having her own navigation troubles and using Logan's left arm to keep herself upright as they walked along a crowded sidewalk in Kabukichō, Tokyo, a very sleazy red light district filled with host and hostess bars, love hotels, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs featuring all kinds of adult entertainment.

"Sleepless Town" was garishly lit with all types and colors of moving neon lights and flashing signs. Vehicle traffic was thick and slow moving, honking their occupants' impatience to partake or even flee the money vacuuming aspects of central Tokyo's internationally famous night life. On the crowded sidewalks, the fun seeking female portions of passing pedestrians wrinkled their noses in disdain while the menfolk openly ogled the two drunken and loudly singing Sekirei females making total and now less than half dressed and panty-less public spectacles of themselves.

Logan shook his head in long suffering. Man, after about 40 beers each, these Sekirei gals went WAY weird. And where in the hell had that karaoke bar gotten that dumb Flower Drum sailor song from a Broadway play of 1958? At least Karasuba smelled better now since she had went into the public bath house and lost her panties somewhere in the process. Calling MBI to come and get her sword before she lost it too had been a stroke of near genius on the karaoke bar manager's part. Of course, there was the possibility Karasuba using all the live plants decorating the bar's interior for demonstrations of her own unique Iaido strikes with her katana might have aided his tactful suggestion, especially after she had moved on to the other customer's clothing when the plants had all been reduced to splinters and spinach. Logan hadn't missed his opportunity however. A tidy 100,000 yen "Karasuba removal fee" later, and here they were hours later, using good old Logan-chan as a traveling prop and joke butt while staggering down another sleazy street in search of an even sleazier bar that hadn't gotten "The Word" about them yet. After the twelfth rendition of the sailor song, Logan finally got his two smashed songbirds to sit on a bench outside a pachinko parlor blasting the world with what passed for rock music. He put Akitsu's new box and bags of clothes down beside her before sitting between them.

"You're, you're a helluva great guy, Logan-chan," Karasuba leaned against his right shoulder, clutched his right arm even tighter to keep from falling off the bench, and began weeping. "I lost my cape! I love my cape! And my sword! You saved my sword! And told me my crotch stank! I'm glad I lost my stinking panties! And you helped Aki-chan wash me too without poking your fingers anywhere! You're the only totally and truly heartless bastard that has ever really understood me! You're one helluva great guy, Logan-chan!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure, I'm a REAL daisy," Logan rolled his eyes in irritation while shaking his head heavenward. He then blew a large cloud of cigar smoke at her from the side of his mouth. If the front door bouncers at every bar they had passed hadn't been giving him anywhere between 10 to 20k yen apiece to move an apparently heretofore, well known, intoxicated Karasuba along, he would have ditched her into a cab and sent her back to MBI by herself a couple of hours ago. On the other hand, Akitsu had quickly subsided into nuzzling bliss into his left armpit with her arms wrapped around his torso. That had real pleasant possibilities once they got back to their double sleeping bag and would definitely make waiting out Karasuba's clumsy info probing antics all that more worthwhile.

Aside from the impromptu and lucrative money making opportunity a hammered Karasuba had unwittingly presented, as well as springing for every yen of their debauched eating and drinking binge on her MBI card, the night hadn't been a total bust in other ways too. The Kobe beef steaks had been superb, and Karasuba had also eventually sprung for a dozen Cohiba Behike cigars, which at their current U.S dollar price was around a cool $1,000 bucks a smoke. She had also bought Logan a black leather motorcycle jacket, and for Akitsu, Karasuba had gotten a few small bags of underclothes as well as a box of fighting kimonos delivered from MBI. It was nice to see Aki-chan walking around as any normal female even though she had promptly lost her first pair of panties at the bath too. Getting his back scrubbed by Aki-chan in the public bath had also been beyond pleasant. All in all a very profitable evening had been had. The non cash price to Logan for all this had been enduring Karasuba's almost non stop yammering and bitching about just about everything on planet Earth and especially its human population. Now she was starting on a nose dripping crying jag, and there was nothing more irritating than a weepy drunk serial killer with some very nasty emo issues.

Logan settled himself more comfortably to relax a little from their latest walking activities and hoped the snot producing Karasuba would just pass out soon. He blew out another cloud of fragrant cigar smoke and stretched out his legs just as a scantily clad female figure in white dashed past in front of him. She was apparently being targeted by controlled bursts of lightning that missed and gouged holes in the street's pavement beyond her as she dodged serpentine away from her attackers. He watched in mild interest as two dark haired females dressed in even less stopped right in front of him, joined one hand to the other, and used their off hands to point.

More crackling, eye and ear searing bursts of atmospheric electricity followed, but these two lightning users were obviously very lousy shots. Instead of frying their distant running, dodging, and now leaping female target, they blew a large hole in the neon billboard above the popular strip club at the end of the block. The sexually leering over the shoulder and near naked picture advertising the club's headliner, "Ume, The Unfolding Flower of Fatale Femininity", got a huge blackened hole where her almost exposed left breast had been. Ume, the Plum Blossom, now looked decidedly lopsided.

"Dammit!" The larger breasted and purple leather clad of the otherwise obvious twins hissed in frustration. "We missed again! C'mon! After her!"

With that the nearer twin, dressed as briefly in lighter magenta colored leather, took a fast step and tripped over Logan's outstretched legs. She careened face forward, tried to use her still pointing hand to break her fall, and yanked her sister off her feet with the other. The pair went down in a very fetching tangle of long, high heeled leather boots, matching shoulder length gloves, leather body strapping, and slipping short leather pants and bras that were now failing to cover their exposed breasts and butt cracks. If the missed shots at their prey and now clumsily hindered progress hadn't lit the temper fuse of the larger twin, the gathering sidewalk crowd now laughing and pointing at them did.

Logan, as any true gentleman should, stood up, intending to offer a good natured helping hand to the stressed out, still tangled together, and flailing alien female mutants. Karasuba immediately fell sideways on the bench with a small grunt and promptly passed out while starting to snore loudly. Akitsu blinked owlishly in consternation that her Logan-chan somehow had risen from her careful protection. She wasn't so far gone in beer, however, that she couldn't notice that her Ashikabi was now naturally the most convenient target for the fallen and more volatile twin's wrath. Akitsu began a very difficult struggle to stand by her man.

The larger breasted twin bounced to her feet while rounding on Logan with an avenging, teeth bared, glare of red eyed fury. Even her long hair stood wildly on ends as she built up her internal charge and prepared to let it go at him with a pointing finger of doom.

"Trip my sister, will you? Take this you clumsy interfering bastard!"

Logan, in the process of taking his cherished expensive cigar out of his mouth with his right hand and holding his left hand out and up in peaceful calming protest, took the full blast. Lightning hit his right hand and exited through his left that just happened to be aimed at a neon sign across the street that had many photos of their young hosts now serving in the awning covered club within. The angry twin's redirected charge just missed one he/she looking host dressed in a smart dark suit and staring in open mouth disbelief at the street spectacle in front of him/her. He/she had dodged aside in superhuman speed to let the lightning char the club's advertising photos behind him/her. He/she then took one super quick bounce into the dark alley beside the club.

"Wha, wha, what?" The attacking twin stammered in shocked disbelief as she did double takes at a slightly steaming but otherwise untouched and unfazed Logan, her pointing hand, the blacked host club sign across the street, and back again.

"Hey, why ain't you even hurt?" The other twin asked in puzzlement as she more calmly regained her feet. "Who are you? What are you? A human lightning rod or something?"

"Someone who has obviously and shockingly low resistance," Logan scowled in a totally peeved fashion as he held up his now frazzled cigar in accusation, "to two dumb lightning users stupidly dressed as cheap s&m perverts and are hellacious bad shots! And clumsy to boot! What in the hell's the big idea? You guys shoot humans? Dammit! You just ruined a thousand dollar smoke!"

"Cheap?" The smaller twin blinked at the more inane part of Logan's diatribe against them. Oh shit. Seo was not going to be happy about them zapping a human, nor a very expensive cigar!

"LOOK OUT!" The larger one grabbed her sister and made them both duck. The action was needless.

Akitsu, left eye closed to aim better and now hanging for dear life onto to Logan's left arm, chopped her left hand at the offending twins who had dared to attack her Ashikabi. She missed but did manage to encase an entire street light in an impressive solid chunk of ice about half way down and on the opposite side of the block. She reloaded, opened her other eye, and chopped again. This time the hot neon sign of Ume, The Plum Blossom and Unfolding Flower of Fatale Femininity, got her left boob back, albeit Ume's left one was now too white and rather lewdly leaking at the tip from the lighted sign's heat. Undaunted and determined to kill her two Sekirei adversaries now looking wildly about for any avenue of escape, the now cross eyed Akitsu wound up and cocked her left hand for another chopping go. An impressive array of very wicked ice daggers formed in the air around her, pointing more or less ominously at the lightning twins but wavering badly in several disjointed directions. Now in self defense mode, the twins locked opposing hands and raised their off hands to begin a return lightning barrage of their own. Belatedly realizing there was going to be a lot of collateral damage and massively injured people in and along the crowded sidewalks, Logan twisted and hopped in front of Akitsu.

"Whoa! Ho! Ho! Nice shooting, Tex!" Logan hastily grabbed Akitsu's hand cannon and brought it, and her, protectively to his chest while turning and pushing her gently back down onto the bench. He patted her shoulders and lightly kissed her forehead as her multitude of forgotten ice daggers fell harmlessly all around them. She blinked up at him not only in confusion, but also in total trust.

"Aki-chan," Logan began soothingly as he lifted the comatose Karasuba by her neck with one hand and slid her upper torso onto Akitsu's lap as an anchor. "I want you to sit here with Karasuba-chan. Hold onto her and don't let her fall, okay? If you feel sleepy, just rest your eyes. I will protect you both, and I'm in no danger now. Do you understand? I'm in no danger."

"No danger," Akitsu nodded and gratefully let her wayward eyes close as she clutched Karasuba's torso in protective obedience. It only took a few seconds before Akitsu's head went back and over, her mouth opened, and she began snoring loudly too.

Logan straightened up, turned to give the lightning twins a renewed scowl of irritation, and leaped at them so quickly that they both froze in total surprise. Both of his hands snaked out and knocked their heads together with the hollow thumping sound of two ripe coconuts banged together. The unconscious twins seemed to melt straight down where they stood. Logan grabbed them with one arm around each female's waist and unceremoniously carried their limp bodies back to the bench. He arranged them in semi-sitting positions, propped against each other and supported on one side by the passed out Akitsu.

Scratching his head for his next move, he suddenly got the idea to let Karasuba phone home. He fished her cell phone out of her skirt pocket, flipped it open, scanned her speed dial entries, and thumbed the one marked Minaka. Sure enough, the video screen lit up with the crazy four eyed geek's surprised face.

"Hey Micky!" Logan glowered into the device. "You got GPS locators on your gal's phone. Use them. She needs a ride home. I'll stay with her until it gets here."

Logan punched the off button and tucked her phone back into Karasuba's pocket.

"Micky?" A disbelieving female voice behind him chuckled. "You called Hiroto Minaka, Micky? And then copped a feel off Karasuba?"

Logan glanced behind him to see that the lightning twins' original target had returned. This particular female alien mutant with a LOT of exposed skin was dressed in long white boots, a very brief white skirt, and a crossed strap of white cloth that did nothing to support and barely covered the functional tips of her rather spectacular chest. Professional Ume the Plum Blossom's publicly advertised figure paled in comparison. He raised one frowning eyebrow in irritation and self righteous indignation at being so summarily and falsely accused.

"Why in the hell would I feel up Karasuba when I got Aki-chan?" Logan demanded while pointing at Akitsu. "I was just putting Fake Face's phone back into her pocket!"

"Fake Face? Heh! That's a good one! What ARE you doing here, bub? Getting ready to pimp out some helpless drunk gals, or is this a street sale on slightly used Sekirei for a thousand yen a grope? Hoo! Hoo! And two without panties? Hey! What in the hell are you doing with a scrapped number? Who are you? How did SHE get out?"

"What do you mean scrapped? She's a good skate as far as I can tell, and just what in the hell are YOU with all that stupid looking linen waving about? A cloth user with a machine gun mouth? And you smell as bad as Karasuba did earlier! Geez, don't you too nosy gals ever bathe? Or even think before you speak?"

"Why you!" The insulted veiled alien stamped her left foot and put indignant fists upon her very shapely and interesting hips.

Any further verbal ripostes were cut off by the leaping arrival of a he/she shaped figure dressed in a flowing long black overcoat, black pants, black gloves, and a black mask covering the lower part of his/her face. With small balls of flame around each fist, he/she struck a nominal fighting pose in front of the still comatose lightning twins, apparently ready to flame their exposed asses without further ado. Logan rolled his eyes again. A fire user. Damn. He'd never met one yet that hadn't had a way too inflated opinion of themselves and their powers. This one looked no different other than, well, he couldn't remember any transsexual alien mutant fire users he had actually known before, or any other ones specifically now that he thought about it, but it would be a sad day if he let this half masked clown fry helpless alien females, especially Akitsu.

"Stand back!" The newcomer ordered imperiously. "Stand back so you don't get hurt!"

It was the nerve grating imperiousness of the order that made Logan's already taxed temper snap. Without thinking he had somehow slammed into the fire user, drove him/her across the street, up against the host club's awning covered wall, and pinned his fired up foe beside the burnt host pictures. Logan's left hand had a choke hold on the fire user's neck, and three long metal blades had emerged from his clenched right fist to be poised for stabbing upward just below the fire user's chin.

"Stand back?" Logan angrily growled through clenched teeth. "I survived Nagasaki, you pathetic little moron! I can survive your worst! Can YOU survive a carved up skull? Light us up, Bitch! And we'll SEE who lives!"

"Whoa!" The veil user still in the street blinked in total shock at what she was seeing and hearing before swallowing hard and yelling out, "HEY! WAIT! DON'T HURT HIM! PLEASE DON'T HURT HIM!"

She instantly sent out long bolts of cloth to wrap around Logan's arm and waist to yank him away from the fire user, but her yanking force simply pulled her into the unmoving Logan's back instead. The thump of her arrival made Logan's threatening blades lightly pink the fire user's under chin. He/she was now wild eyed from fear. The impact also drove the breath out of the veil user with a loud, "OOF!", but she hung in there although her now breathless grunting and tugging on Logan's right arm had zero effect.

"Uh, uh, I'm, I'm, sorry?" The fire user stammered while gasping for breath and blinking down into the maniacal, stone cold blue eyes of his strange, sudden, and totally unprepared for attacker.

"Hey, Handsome!" An unknown female's voice breathed warmly into his left ear. "Whatcha doing? These are my drinking buddies!"

Logan turned his head ever so slightly and let his eyes slide to the left. His first impression and thought was that good ol' Ume the Unfolding Plum Blossom, the stripping headliner without serious rival in the red light district of Kabukichō, might as well apply for an out of work pension now. If Akitsu and the white veiled alien mutant wrapped around his back were way above the Plum Blossom's league, and they were, then this newest dark haired, dark eyed alien gal in a very tight purple mini dress breathing on the left side of his face was definitely the showcase pinnacle for fatal femininity. He blinked and flinched slightly as the top of the world class beauty, alien and otherwise, leaned closer and lightly kissed his nose. Miss Alien Universe also had the fresh and slightly intoxicating smell of jasmine flowers and expensive sake.

"Onee-chan?" The black garbed fire user said uncertainly as he/she wasn't about to move and could only glimpse the newcomer out of the corner of his/her sideways straining eyes.

"Help yank his damn arm down, Onee-chan!" The harmless cloth user behind Logan half shouted while still grunting in her efforts to save her friend.

"What do you say, Handsome?" The beauty called Onee-chan let her left hand go up and softly stroke Logan's fist gripped around the fire user's throat while her lush lips came back to breathe warmly into his left ear again. "Ummm, Onee-chan would really like for you to not hurt her friend, please? Pretty please? I've got a bottle of dai ginjo sake. It's Kame no O. Want to share it with me?"

Logan's eyes narrowed as he frowned at the newcomer. She recoiled slightly at his very icy cold look and the gruff bluntness of his return question.

"Will you make sure this dumb shit won't hurt those gals on the bench across the street?"

"Homura?" Onee-chan asked her companion while smiling sweetly.

"Uhhh, yeah, sure, I mean, no!" Homura gulped. "I won't hurt' em! Uhhh, damn! I've got to get back to work!"

"Don't even look cross eyed at Akitsu or me in the future, ass wipe," Logan growled softly while letting his left hand relax. He flinched as the three long and gleaming blades of his relaxing right hand involuntarily withdrew back into his knuckles. Then he noticed that his right bicep was still being yanked on from behind. He stepped back and glanced over his shoulder in irritation as Homura tried to stand without shaking and regain a little of his/her lost dignity. Logan retrieved a new cigar from an inside jacket pocket, bit the end, spat it out, and then stuck it unlit in his mouth. A sudden glow at the tip made him draw a puff as he turned a jaundiced eye back at Homura.

"Brown nosing?"

"Uhhh, no, well, maybe, uhhh, just a little trick I use at work. No hard feelings?"

"Nah, I guess not," Logan finally shrugged after thinking it over for a few seconds. This Homura hadn't actually DONE anything except be that final small but over the top irritation of a highly irritating night with a constantly info probing turned totally obnoxious drunk Karasuba. And he/she was the friend of this highly interesting Onee-chan which earned him/her quite a few forgiveness points for tonight. "Just leave me and Akitsu totally alone from now on, savvy?"

"Savvy," Homura nodded in exhaling yet highly curious relief. "Did you really survive Nagasaki?"

"Yeah, but that's all I can remember about it. Miss Onee-chan, you got any ideas where those two lightning users live? Help me get them home?" Logan jerked his left thumb across the street at the bench. After the purple clad beauty simply returned a few amused nods, he looked over his left shoulder again to grumble at the veiled alien female, "Will you give it up back there already, Stinky? And for crying out loud! Go take a damn bath! You been playing in a dumpster or something? Your stinking up my new leather jacket!"

"You might want to freshen up a bit, chickee," Onee-chan nodded while wrinkling her nose in agreement. Homura took this opportunity to scramble sideways back towards the alley and beat a hasty retreat while attention was focused away from him/her.

"You're taking his side?" The veiled female demanded in wounded betrayal and half blushing embarrassment as she too backed off a couple of steps and retracted her clinging cloths. "Just because I've been fighting and sweating and, well, I did slip in that alley once, but, well, ummm, oh all right! I'm going! Just remember Hibiki and Hikari started it! I was minding my own business when they jumped me for some sparring practice and then got pissed when I started kicking both of their butts!"

"Sparring practice?" Logan shouted after her in disbelief as the veiled female took one leap up to the top of Ume the Plum Blossom's advertisement before launching away in another. "You idiots blew a hole in Ume's left boob for Pete's sakes!"

"Do you really care?" Onee-chan chuckled beside him, but her dark eyes were examining his right knuckles with great interest.

"Uhhh, not really, I guess," Logan said absentmindedly while doing a double take at the bench across the street. Another female alien mutant had arrived and was trying to free Karasuba from Akitsu's clutches. He suddenly found himself beside the newcomer with shaggy cut gray hair that only allowed her right eye to actually see anything. He belatedly realized that she was on a harmless mission of drunk cohort retrieval and relaxed, only to get a giant whiff of more irritation.

"Geez, don't you ever bathe? And what in the hell are you supposed to be anyway?" Logan recoiled slightly at the cloying odor of slightly mildewed cloth, unwashed female loins, and stale rice emanating from the female's completely bandage wrapped body. Another total basic hygiene fail. What was with these alien gals that they couldn't use soap? "Are you a failed bit player in some zombie terrorist movie or something? And what's with the combat boots, ratty looking kimono, and dog collar?"

"Hey pal, I'm Haihane, not a failed anything, and don't be ragging on my ass, okay? I've had a tough day and a now a short night thanks to you! Besides, you're the one who called to get Karasuba picked up. I'm here from MBI to do that, so just can the snarky criticism, or just kiss my ass. What do you know about fashion statements anyway, Shortie? You're wearing a failed James Dean outfit that was gagging gals forty years ago, let alone today. Natural Goth is in, old man. Deal with it. We got her sword already, but where are Karasuba's battle cape and panties?"

"Oh, uhhh, she lost them both somewhere after the karaoke bar kicked us out and the public bath. I think some music critic took 'em." Logan eyed the long crossed claw weapons in a sling on Haihane's back with interest as she bent back over to free Karasuba. The weird looking blades had some real potential, he thought approvingly. But why in the hell did she fight half blind? Curiosity got the best of him."How come you cut your hair like that?"

"Because it's sexy and cool, ya bean butt. Why else?"

"Yeah, well okay, I can see that," Logan nodded agreeably since he was finally getting rid of Karasuba after all, but not before she had left dried snot all over the right sleeve of his new jacket. Oh well, that could be cleaned, and she had bought it for him in the first place. "You're right. It's you're choice if you want to fight half blind, motion hampered by your clothes, and lead footed. It's actually kind of cool of you to give your opponents such advantages from your self imposed handicaps."

"Yeah, whatever, see ya in the funny papers, Mac." Haihane returned tiredly, grunted slightly in picking up and balancing Karasuba's dead weight, and then she too leaped to the top of Ume the Plum Blossom's sign.

That was a damn impressive jump, Logan admitted internally while taking a contemplative puff on his cigar. That unwashed Haihane is a lot stronger and quicker than she looked, and poor ol' Plum Blossom is really getting worked over tonight too. Well, now he could get a cab and take Akitsu back to Shiba Park and their double sleeping bag since this Onee-chan had agreed to get the twin lightning users home. Wait. Dammit, the sleeping bag was on the love hotel roof. And that was just the excuse he needed to maybe get to know this knockout named Onee-chan a little better. He turned to see her grinning in appreciation of his blunt byplay with Haihane while holding onto an opened but barely begun bottle of Kame no O sake. He took a second to openly admire what she did for high heels and a short purple dress showing a lot of world class cleavage and likewise bare abdomen. There was also something else about her in the infrared bands of the air constantly swirling around her. Ahhh, a wind user without a doubt, but there was no slight ozone odors of a storm bringer, just the sweet smell of jasmine flowers and ultra smooth sake.

"Were you really going to share that sake, or were you just stroking me to let your pal Homura go?"

"Ummm, both. I'm Kazehana, Number Three," Kazehana smiled with an arched eyebrow of interest, "and you?"

"It seems that Logan is the best I got for a name right now. Let's go with that. I hope you can overlook my temper display with Homura. I've got a feeling I'm not exactly acting quite like myself for some reason, and going off too quick, but I don't know why yet. I really like that jasmine smell of yours by the way. It reminds me of a woman I loved very much a long time ago. How about we find a couple of taxis and drop these twin perverts wherever they belong, and then you can help me get Akitsu's bed off a love hotel roof by Shiba Park. I could use a few swigs along the way. All this excitement has made me lose that nice buzz I had going earlier. It's made me real irritable for some reason."

"That nice buzz is what I like best too," Kazehana chuckled in return while waving her bottle in approval of his plan, "and I also like your very manly leather smell, Ogle-San. I got a few questions I'd like to ask about your very interesting life and times too."

"Like what's a sad bad boy like me doing in a nice town like this?" Logan shook his head in frustrated amusement. "Or where do those knuckle blades of mine come from? If I had a thousand yen from everyone that wanted those questions answered today, we'd have free cab fare, but what the hell. For some Kame no O sake, I'll tell you what I do know for sure. It ain't much."

Less than an hour later the lightning twins were dropped off at some ratty looking apartment building. Akitsu was snoring peacefully in one side of the double sleeping bag beside the pond and waterfall in Shiba Park. Kazehana and Logan sat side by side on the bag's other side, drinking sake together and sharing what history and details about each other as they could. Eventually, Kazehana learned what little he remembered about Jasmine Falls, the sun drenched days and moonlit starry nights he had known there long ago, and his great yet tragic love for sweet, sweet Itsu. That knowledge, and the empty sake bottle, was also why Kazehana wept softly when he softly sang as much as he could remember of an old sad song that reminded him of his lost Itsu, the song named "Starry Starry Night."


	4. Chapter 4

**Starry Starry Nights**

**Chapter Four – Fourth Night**

"Boss?" Haihane whispered cautiously as she peered at her leader's gaunt eyed face in the dim light to see if Karasuba was finally awake. The heavily curtained bedroom of MBI's Towers and condo complex made it difficult to tell since the Black Sekirei's frazzled, long gray hair was also tossed so chaotically about the her face, bedclothes, and pillows. Haihane turned on a small night light eliciting an agonized groan of disapproval from the zombie looking creature now cringing amidst the tangled covers. "You awake, Boss? Minaka's going NUTS! He wanted your report on what you learned about that prick Logan last night, and he wanted it hours ago!"

"You ASS, Haihane! Are you trying to blind me?" Karasuba ground out through gritted teeth, the effort making her groan again while groping with both hands to find and then clutch her throbbing head before continuing. "I'm awake, dammit! And if you keep shouting, I'm going to KILL YOU! And then I'll KILL Minaka! And especially LOGAN! My head is killing ME! Thirsty! Get me some water and an ice bag for my head! And get me painkillers! Now!"

"Hey, okay! OKAY! Take it easy! I'm on it already!" Haihane flinched backward with her hands up to ward off blows that didn't come. She whispered much more softly between her spread fingers. "I already have the medics and a nurse coming over with meds! They're bringing sports drinks with electrolytes to re-hydrate you and a tank of oxygen too. A maid's coming to help you bathe and wash your hair. I kinda figured from the shape you was in when I brought you back here this was gonna be the case now. What the hell happened last night? That freak Logan guy sent your sword here, and then a couple hours later, he called for us to come and get you! You were bombed unconscious! Didja learn any more about him other than he's a mouthy old wise ass? What should I tell Minaka? By the way, he doesn't want Logan dead. He wants to use him against your old Number 01 pal, Miya."

"Old pal Miya, my ass! I, uhhh, Claws, look out! I'm gonna yak up my SOCKS!"

Karasuba, totally naked except for her two toed socks, made weird gurgling noises while holding onto her mouth and scrambling to roll out of her futon. She scrabbled futilely on the floor for a few seconds before getting on her knees and crawling on three limbs towards the bathroom like a hairless, sallow skinned, bare ass yet wild maned baboon. She didn't make it. Choking and heaving, her highly abused stomach relieved itself of every micro liter of vile and bile smelling contents onto her apartment's bedroom rug. Then, even with a now empty stomach, the hollow and dark eyed Karasuba miserably began retching again, pausing to get her breath, and then starting in again. Finally, some minutes later and still on her knees, she backed away from her noxious vomited mess and collapsed sideways; moaning, sweating, and shivering in still nauseated, head pounding, dry heave misery.

"Whoa! Barfarama! Mount Asama! Ewww! The maid's gonna have to do a LOT of cleaning too, eh?" Haihane breathed in somewhat less than sympathetic awe at the pitiful sight before her. She backed further away from the sickening smell herself while shaking her head. The spewing had abated, for now. Haihane had never seen the totally controlled and emotionally cold Karasuba reduced to such a pitiful, floor writhing, barfing, and pathetic looking state. On the other hand, it was kind of weirdly funny and satisfying to see the arrogant, overbearing, and too powerful Karasuba get a major dose of mortal and volcanic comeuppance for once.

"Minaka wants to know what I learned about Logan, huh?" Karasuba wheezed weakly without looking back at her companion or even opening her eyes. "Tell him that sonofabitch Logan can out drink a Freaking WHALE! You can also tell Minaka and our electronic geeks I got a GPS locator bugging Logan's new jacket, and Akitsu the scrapped number now has an MBI card we can use to help keep track of them along with our satellites. The only other things I know for sure is that Logan's a walking tank, solid, heavy, way heavier than he looks. Incredibly strong too. And absolutely fearless. Oh, and I'm pretty sure he's got a super sensitive nose for scents, almost as if he was some kind of animal."

"Yeah?" Haihane nodded in frowning puzzlement over those tidbits of information while covering her nose, coughing, and trying not to reflexively gag at the bedroom's now very noxious and cloying smell. "So if he's not human, and not Sekirei either, then what the hell is he? How come you didn't drug those two like you were supposed to so the lab boys could haul them in for examination?"

"I tried, dammit! I TRIED! Minaka said not to provoke Logan or even make him suspicious and upset the public too much if he went nuts again. I doped both their beers three times last night with knockout drops real sneaky like, but none of it fazed Logan at all. I mean no effect of any kind, like he didn't even twitch! It was as if he had simply swallowed water, and those damn knockout drops only made Akitsu real loopy. That gal's brain just isn't wired right somehow, but she's in total Sekirei protect mode of Logan, almost like she's bonded. After that, things get REAL fuzzy because I got hammered trying to act like I was just along for a good old beer drinking party time. Which actually was kinda fun at the time, and Logan must know a thousand dirty jokes. He cracked me up with the one about a virgin Amazon nympho stranded on an island with a toothless gay cannibal. They, they both couldn't, ummm, something about inspiring a twink named Mick Jagger and get no satisfaction, and, and, never mind. I've forgot the punchline, but it was really damn funny when Logan-chan sang it.

"Anyway, that weird bastard is also an old fashioned kind of gentleman for having such a rude, obnoxious, and blunt mouth on him. He was always opening doors for us, pulling our chairs out, and ya know, shit like that. Then I remember walking, a LOT, and singing, telling jokes, and finally sitting down on a bench. That's it. Tell Minaka that's all I got. We started out in a steak house, went to a karaoke bar, and a public bath house, and then walked. That's all I remember. Now I'm here, sick as hell, and my head feels like it's a pounded pumpkin with Swiss cheese where my memories should be."

"Well, I can help with those, a little," Haihane grinned half apologetically and half in amusement. Toothless gay cannibal? Logan-chan? "It seems that you also had a LOT of fun slicing and dicing a bunch of plants and customers' clothes last night in that karaoke bar. Logan cleaned out that joint's cash reserves as a giant shakedown fee to get you out of there. Then The Word must have went out all over town that you was on a warpath drinking binge again. Those Kabukichō bouncers have really learned how to communicate when it comes to us gals being down there to party, ya know? Anyway, Logan did the same shakedown scam at a bath house and about 40 or so other clubs, bars, and strip joints in the district. The bouncers at the front door either had to pay up, or he'd bring you in to let you wreck the joints. That's what all the walking was about. From all the complaints Minaka received and paid off, Logan pimped your sorry drunk ass all around Kabukichō to the tune of almost 500,000 yen."

"That phony, smiling, joke telling, sonofabitch!" Karasuba groaned while rolling over on her side into a fetal curl and grasping her badly throbbing head in both hands again, which caused another groaning dilemma. Her sick stomach needed held too. "All the time seeming to be such a nice, fun guy type when we both KNEW he's a grade A ruthless bastard! On the other hand, he had me blitzed and naked in the bath house, and I didn't get raped or even fingered. Hell, he even made me wash my own tits, ass, and crotch! Talk about a let down! But he did help wash and rinse my hair. Actually, that WAS kind of sexy. Oh, yeah, one other thing you can tell Minaka. Logan-chan might be half horse since he's hung like one."

"Yeah? No shit!" Haihane grinned again but this time more in mentally visualizing and appreciative interest. "Well, who'd a thought that mouthy old timer and wind bag would have anything like that going for him! Huh! Interesting! Well, at any rate, Boss, we gotta get you up, moving, and operating soonest. Minaka wants more information with you back on the case as a drinking buddy type party girl, wired for sight and sound, and out there staying as close to Logan as you can get."

"Screw that," Karasuba snorted in stomach clutching and renewed shivering disdain. "My head hurts. And any second I'm gonna barf up my toenails again. Besides it's not even 8 o'clock in the freaking morning! You're going this time! Not me!"

"WHAT! No way! That smart mouth Logan pisses me off just to look at him, let alone listen to him blather on! Besides, I get shitfaced on two beers!"

"GOOD! Then you can see how THIS feels! Oh hell, just take Benny with you. Take Logan to lunch and then party all day and night if you have to. She can do the simpering charm routine while trying to poison him, and she holds her liquor better. Double team him. Keep him off balance. Good gal, bad gal. Got it? Hell, he looks and acts like a hand to hand type fighter. See if you can spar with him and work off a little mutual aggression if different poisons don't work. You can at least learn something about his speed, strength, and reflexes while the satellites are watching. Just take a bath first and wear clean panties and clothes. Logan ain't gonna hang out with you smelling like a mildewed bathroom carpet that was last shampooed ten years ago. Now get the hell out of here. I'm dying, and when I can, I swear I'm gonna kill everyone in sight. Just as soon as I can find my damn sword."

"Hey, Minaka ain't gonna like," Haihane began again in hand waving protest.

"Screw Minaka! You two are going! That's an order! Now GET OUT! And turn that damn light off!"

"Okay, okay," Haihane grumbled and grimaced in resignation and repugnance at now being forced to socially interact with Logan in any fashion, let alone relaying Karasuba's altered plan to Minaka. "It's gonna drive Minaka NUTS, but you're the Boss."

***scene break***

Logan! Who was he? It was driving her NUTS! MBI's clandestine electronic systems that she constantly monitored had went more or less berserk two nights ago and had caught her interest. Now this totally mystifying and exciting new Ashikabi was driving her absolutely insane in curiosity! The red haired alien female, Matsu Number 02, took off her glasses with her right hand, put them down on another floor pillow beside her, and gently massaged her tired eyes with her left. The more she had tried to find out about this Logan, the more deeply she had gotten immersed into a giant circular quagmire of unanswered, simple, and yet profoundly bizarre questions. Also, the longer she had stayed at trying to answer them, the more puzzling, somewhat sinister, and exciting her search for information had become, and definitely more infuriating and totally frustrating. Her informational quest had her running around the same circles trying to link what little was known to make sense. Each circuit kept bringing her right back to her starting question that was now a full blown obsession simply driving her NUTS! Who WAS he? LOGAN!

Matsu took a few deep calming breaths. One thing stood out above everything. Logan had all the top security brass at Mid Bio Informatics, including Minaka and his Sekirei Disciplinary Squad, also going into a total five alarm tizzy trying answer the same simple questions Matsu wanted answered. After calming down a little, she looked over the self made list on her electronic tablet once more.

Who was Logan? Since he was obviously not human nor Sekirei, what was he? What exactly where the extent of his inhuman powers, skills, and other abilities? Why had he went berserk in Shiba Park? When and from where had he come? How had he gotten here? Why was he in Tokyo? Why was there absolutely no record of him in any conceivable data base around the world before 2 days ago, let alone any records of travel or financial activity ever? Why was he feigning amnesia? Or was he? Was it a clever cover? What plans did he have now? What was he after? How and why had he teamed up with that incredibly powerful and possibly brain damaged scrapped Sekirei? Was he now going to team up with and/or wing more Sekirei? Why was he refusing to participate in MBI's Sekirei Plan, or was he? How could he be safely contained in Tokyo and even neutralized in the future if the need arose? The last questions were two with some sinister implications since Logan fit every known parameter for a professional assassin except keeping a low profile. Who had paid to get Logan here, and what currently could be Logan's priority mission? MBI secrets? Kidnap a Sekirei? Assassinate MBI, government, and/or Yakuza leaders? Minaka only? Other Ashikabi? Miya? All Sekirei? Some unknown personal professional enemy of Logan? Who?

Deep in thought and categorizing what little she knew about Logan for sure, Matsu then ran her fingers through her thick, long auburn tresses before blinking in realization that she hadn't tidied her hair into her usual twin braids after last night's weird bath with a very, very angry Uzume. She turned her head to eye herself in a long closet door mirror. This new hairdo made her look years older and actually kind of gave her full figure and face a slightly slutty and wanton look. Matsu smiled grimly to herself before taking another deep, calming breath, retrieving and adjusting her glasses, and going back to work. Her slutty looking hair could wait. The was nothing better than a deep puzzling mystery like Logan!

She paused for a second, unless of course it was thinking over the exact position and circumstances in which she was going to lose her virginity, and with whom. She shook her head pragmatically. Sex was optional for now, but bonding by a kiss at least must happen soon if she was going to enhance her powers and have even a remote chance of surviving the Sekirei Plan. Logan was certainly now a prime candidate if for no other reason than she wanted a very powerful Ashikabi who also was an enemy of and/or a possible conqueror of MBI's Sekirei Plan. Unless of course, he was Minaka's secret tool to destroy Miya to begin with since Logan had been strangely given full Ashikabi status by just being with a scrapped number. Or was that just Minaka's self defensive ploy in utilizing the old "keep your friends close but your enemies closer" gambit? Had Minaka somehow lost control of a going rogue and too strong to stop Logan?

Matsu chewed her lower lip and shook her head again in speculation. Either way she needed a powerful Ashikabi to stay alive and save Miya too. If Logan WAS Minaka's hired claws and/or going rogue, then maybe she could turn Logan in Miya's favor or at least sneakily sabotage his mission. She would die to save Miya if she had to. Time would tell if Logan was friend or foe, but she wanted to, no, HAD to know NOW! And there was a real possibility Logan was simply an inhuman fighter in Tokyo for who knew why. In that case she could use her virgin body and perverted lusts to recruit him FOR saving Miya as well as get a strong Ashikabi for herself! Wooo! She liked that thought!

That brought up the most compelling reasons why Matsu wanted Logan as a prime candidate for her Ashikabi. She had hacked MBI's data bases to find physical and vocal descriptions of him that came from several phone videos taken by Karasuba, statements from a helicopter pilot and a hospitalized cop, but more importantly, one incredibly interesting satellite video from yesterday that featured an unconscious Logan being stripped naked and bathed by the scrapped number in a Shiba Park pond. This one Matsu had digitally enhanced down to crystal clarity of phallic details and had run over and over while almost mesmerized. Even if Minaka and his geek cohorts seemed to remain clueless about why the scrapped Sekirei had teamed up with Logan, Matsu wasn't. Any young and healthy female Sekirei "ready to really get it on!" with her new Ashikabi could immediately see Logan was a mature, powerful, and very self confident male; ruggedly handsome, muscular, sexy looking, and hung. Matsu WANTED him.

Matsu blew out a deep sigh of anticipated passion and shook herself to get back to and focus on her current research. In doing so, she automatically flicked her eyes around the multiple computer and video screens that covered three walls of her hidden, end of the hall, second story room at Maison Izumo. One of Matsu's intricately linked systems was intercepting, decrypting, and recording an MBI satellite visual and GPS locator signal. The fact that one very expensive and sophisticated satellite had now been completely dedicated to keeping an orbital eye on Logan was irrefutable proof of how totally gonzo Logan was driving MBI's top brass. This made Matsu almost believe that Logan was NOT an inside part of MBI's Sekirei Plan and available for her use to win it, but she had to KNOW! Although her fingers were paused over her main keyboard to resume her next Logan informational quest, Matsu's attention became riveted on the satellite's visual view of Shiba Park and three figures emerging from the leafy cover of some blossoming cherry trees.

There was Logan and Homura propping up a half comatose Kazehana between them and walking towards a taxi waiting on the nearby street crammed with morning rush hour traffic. What? How and when had those two gotten next to Logan without being seen? The scrapped number Sekirei was stumbling along behind them with a tightly rolled and tied double sleeping bag in her left hand and carrying in the crook of her right arm what looked like two large stacked cooking pots with stuff inside the top one. The cab driver politely put the scrapped Sekirei's stuff in the taxi's trunk and used an elastic cord as a tightener to keep the open lid from bouncing. Logan got in the front with the driver after helping Homura sit between and prop up the two Sekirei females in the back seat. The cab leaned oddly over when Logan sat. Now ready for travel, the badly lopsided cab made a u-turn in heavy traffic, no doubt with multiple horns blaring in disgust, then a right onto a major northbound street, and promptly merged into more heavy city traffic filled with other similar cabs. Matsu's fingers flew over her keyboard and within seconds had their cab number and destination identified. Her breath caught in excited anticipation. Their taxi was coming to Izumo Inn! She was going to meet Logan in person, or at least spy on him up close! All right!

Matsu watched for a few breathless minutes. Wait! What was this? For some reason, after stopping under an overpass near Tokyo's Shinagawa Station entrance for a few minutes, the scrapped number's MBI card was used to withdraw the maximum amount of cash from an ATM, and then card purchases were made for four Shinkansen departure tickets, two southwest to Kokura and two northbound to far Sapporo. Logan's personal GPS signal then started to go rapidly towards Kanazawa along the west route? Had he ditched his transmitter somehow? Had he gotten on the maglev bullet train system? If so, which route? Yet MBI's satellite camera was still trying to reacquire and follow the taxi! Matsu pounded her knees in frustration at MBI's incompetence and slow response. Stop those Shinkansen trains! Block Tokyo's bridges and roads of egress! What if he doubled back and just hid in the city or simply caught another vehicular ride outbound? Logan was ditching MBI's surveillance! And making it look easy! Damn! Matsu hissed in helpless frustration as she settled in to watch and wait.

Sure enough, thirty minutes later, the taxi arrived to unload only Homura and a now totally passed out Kazehana. An irate Matsu, with her long red hair still unbound, met them at Maison Izumo's front door.

"Where are Logan and that scrapped Sekirei?" Matsu demanded without any greeting.

"He got out at Shinagawa," Homura shrugged indifferently, "and came back about five minutes later without his leather jacket. He and Akitsu, that's the scrapped number's name by the way, got their stuff and starting walking towards that big shopping mall nearby. Where's Miya and Uzume?"

"Miya went shopping. Uzume's still sleeping. She came home very upset about 3:30 a.m. and took a bath before going to bed." Matsu waved her hands at him/her impatiently. "You two were with Logan and that Akitsu in Shiba Park. How? Why?"

"Kazehana went drinking with them after she and Uzume stopped him from killing me last night," Homura sighed wearily. "Logan used her phone to call me to come and get her just after dawn. He told me to walk in and not draw any attention. Look. It's almost 9 a.m. I'm bushed and need to sleep. I'll tell you all about it at dinner tonight. What's with your wild and frizzy hairdo? New look? Where should I put Onee-chan?"

"NO! She can wait! Talk now! Logan almost killing you? Why? How did Onee-chan stop it? I want to KNOW now! Details! Gimme details! Why was he going to a shopping mall? Did he say where he was going afterward? What's he like? And I'll take her up to my room! I've got to ask her more questions as soon as she wakes up! And Uzume too! I've, I've,"

"Got to get a grip! And here, take her!" Homura snapped peevishly as he wheeled to let Matsu hold onto and make ready to carry Kazehana upstairs. "Logan's going to buy some things! Why else would he go shopping? You'd be wise to leave him alone and stay as far away from that scary bastard as you can get too! And I told you! I'm bushed! It's been a VERY bad night for my nerves, and I'm going to bed! I'll talk when I wake up!"

"But, but, I NEED to know now!" Matsu stamped her foot in frustration. She hastily recoiled and ducked when twins balls of angry flame appeared around Homura's palms which were now thrust out menacingly in her direction. The no nonsense, silent, and narrow eyed look she was getting from Homura meant she was perilously close to getting her long and flowing red hair singed badly, again. Matsu quickly put Kazehana between her and the highly irate fire user. She started carrying the comatose Kazehana upstairs. Matsu gritted her teeth in impatient frustration as she went. Even if she now had three new and better sources of information about Logan, that even MBI didn't have, the increasing mystery of him and her impatiently growing number of unanswered questions were still driving her absolutely NUTS! Who WAS he? Logan!

***scene break***

Schnickt! Logan blinked in somewhat surprised and yet pleased self accomplishment as three long, shiny metal, and razor sharp looking blades sprang forth from his clenched right fist. So THAT was how they worked! The wrist had to be absolutely straight before clenching the fist and tensing his forearm muscles at the same time. Huh. Once fully extended, his wrist still had full range of movement. He swiped the air about him experimentally. He relaxed, and the blades went back up into his arm. So, he did heal immediately and regenerate as he seemed to think that he always had. Just like those instant healing razor blade cuts. Maybe his brain was getting better too even though it still ached. He clenched his left fist and tensed the forearm at the same time. Schnickt! Then the right fist and forearm again. Schnickt!

Now wasn't this interesting? Logan gazed at his long metal claws. Almost downright sexy in an instant stiffy phallic sense. Wonder how much intentional damage he could do with these babies? And on what kinds of stuff? He looked over at Akitsu sitting at the apartment's little kitchenette table. She had paused in eating her noon lunch of take out curried rice and was now watching him with her eyebrows raised slightly in totally fascinated interest. He remembered going into a total red rage fury and punching that cop car repeatedly the other night, eventually greatly overtaxing and tearing his muscles throwing it as well as passing out from the pain, but he hadn't remembered using these fist blades, nor how he had activated them. Now he could. Anytime he wanted apparently, even though he still couldn't really remember much of anything else about himself. He relaxed his arms and fists and let them fall straight down as the blades retracted. He tensed again. Schnickt! Both of them went full out at once. Now wasn't that just damn all interesting as things could get?

Almost as interesting as that sneaky, Cheshire cat grinning Karasuba slipping bitter tasting chloral hydrate into his beer three times last night and tagging that gift leather jacket with a locating transmitter. He had spotted the little gizmo's faint infrared heat signature immediately. That meant Akitsu's unlimited MBI card was actually just another means to keep electronic tabs on them too. Then a very deep in her cups Karasuba had let it accidentally slip that she had found him and Akitsu in Shiba Park from a stationary orbit MBI satellite visually tracking him.

Combination tracking and doping with knockout drops implied capture. Capture implied imprisonment with lab rat type cutting, testing, and probing; complete with different types of radiant scanning, further doping experiments, deep pin brain stimulation, lots of blood, skin, bone, vital organ, and brain analyzing, needles, scalpels, drills, saws, and lots and lots and lots of electrical shocks and another big, damn, painful light up his ass. Dimly, very dimly, he was pretty sure that had all happened to him before, several times, because everybody and their brother had wanted to find out the why and how and how to duplicate his total regeneration powers. He was also pretty sure he had been literally killed in as many gruesomely imaginable ways possible, each one more painful than the last including atomic blasts, and several of those previous deaths had occurred during very painful lab tests. More exceedingly painful testing in an MBI lab didn't seem to be a pleasant thought at all. Testing completed, however, implied dismembered disposal, also painful, especially if a way was found by the lab coat guys to stop him from regenerating as normal. Capture, testing, and disposal also implied Akitsu would share his fate. None of that was very interesting to him at all.

Logan moved to join Akitsu at the kitchenette table and tried to logically think about their situation while eating. So. He had a couple decisions to make. Akitsu and he could run fast and far and hide. Probably tough to do in this electronic and "spies all over the skies" age, even in a wilderness. They could stay here in Tokyo under present deep cover. That wouldn't successfully last long if for no other reason they'd simply run out of money. Tokyo was an expensive place to live. He couldn't simply find some way to remove all traces of his existence from MBI's records, unless he killed Micky, Karasuba, that cop, the helicopter pilot, and who knew how many other MBI personnel. Not very practical anyway, because how would he ever actually be totally sure he'd gotten everyone who knew about him? Unless of course he destroyed every damn trace of MBI. Doable, maybe, but also very bloody. Not too practical. Besides, he was damn tired of killing.

OR, he could make life and everyone at MBI so damn miserable that they would, out of a great desire for relief, finally decide to just let him and Akitsu alone to go their own way. Now that had a lot of upside merit and was very doable.

Now that he thought about it, he already knew several pretty nasty ways to terrorize an organization and even a whole damn city if he really got serious about it. Especially after Karasuba tried to dope his ass last night, and two could play that game, right? How would she like to find herself waking up in the back end of a dump truck full of rice paddy fertilizer headed for the southern Tsugaru Plains?

Let's see, Logan squinted as he tried very hard to concentrate despite his aching head. Chloral hydrate, CCl3,CH (OH)2, or more simply, trichloroacetaldehyde monohydrate, a powerful soporific, or in layman terms a sleep inducing drug, knockout drops, commonly called the Mickey Flynn or Mickey when added to some drinking buddy's beer or cocktail. Hell, he could make his own with some bleach, Sani-flush, ethyl alcohol, sulfuric acid, calcium oxide, beakers, special bottles, glass and rubber tubing, thermometer, distilling set, basting syringe, and an aquarium aerator. No problem. Done it many times.

He dredged deeper into his balky mind to see that he also knew how to make crude napalm, bombs, timers, and Molotov cocktails on the homemade cheap too. Heh. Making zip guns, blowguns, stun guns, and all kinds of damn guns and trick ammo were no problem either. Matter of fact, fun. It seems he was or had been some kind of guerrilla/terrorist/army of one many times in his dark past then. Huh. Now wasn't that interesting too. If that was the case, then he could have all kinds of fun raising sheer hell with MBI before they finally found him, and they would, eventually, no matter how cleverly he tried to hide. By then he needed to make it very clear to Micky and his boys that continued screwing with Logan and Akitsu was way more damn trouble than it was worth.

Okay, then taking it hard to MBI would be easier and more cheaply done while hiding out in Tokyo, and especially with allies, the more powerful the better. The government as an ally was out because according to Kazehana, Micky owned the government. Besides, the cops were already less than thrilled with berserker Logan for wrecking a car and busting one their patrolman's jaw, which Logan actually felt bad about. The crime lords of the city's Yakuza weren't going to do anything that didn't generate a nice profit and apparently were partially in bed with MBI already by making payoffs to be left alone. He didn't have enough money to hire thugs anyway. Foreign governments weren't going to be much interested in simply harassing a Japanese pharmaceutical conglomerate for anything less than legally stealing every yen, stock, bond, building, and patent MBI owned. Now a competitor might be a possibility, especially the one named Higa Izumi. There was a guy who had bonded with several Sekirei presumably to use them to defeat Minaka and take over MBI. The guy was most likely to go off and do his own thing at some crucial juncture and be more trouble than not. Or Logan could simply ally directly with Sekirei himself, but that raised other problems, again according to Kazehana.

First of all, she had said these Sekirei, except for the one named Miya Asama who owned and ran Maison Izumo, were "Earth raised" alien visitors/invaders that had crashed in the Pacific Ocean ages ago and only since discovered in the past two decades or so. They were either unlucky stellar travelers, hunted galactic criminals, a failed invasion or exploratory force of ages past, or possibly just sent to seed the planet with their DNA for some unknown future purpose. Colonization maybe? Sending eggs and embryos alone out into a cruel universe sounded pretty much like an act of desperation, but hey, maybe the aliens had just wanted to diversify their own DNA. Who knew? At any rate, the Sekirei eggs and embryos guarded by adult Miya had been discovered and raised by MBI lab techs. More importantly they had been indoctrinated into participating and fighting in Micky's Sekirei Plan, which as explained in detail by a soused Kazehana, had made little sense at all to Logan. Why raise super powered alien babies just to have them fight each other to the death?

Well, whatever the purposes of spending decades of time and money developing super powered aliens only to have them kill each other in a deadly tournament, Micky HAD to be somehow making some kind of huge profit out of it all. Otherwise, again, what was the point? The kicker in the whole deal was Kazehana had adamantly declared that all Sekirei were genetically and instinctively driven upon maturity to exchange DNA and bond or "wing" once for life with any being that fit certain psychic parameters, aka, Ashikabi. In this case, Earth born humans. Ashikabi. Huh. Weird name. At any rate, there would be no female alien kissing and "fooling around" for meaningless one night stands or longer ongoing sexual dalliances either. That meant if Logan wanted Sekirei allies to get MBI to leave him alone, he was almost certainly going to risk gaining a lifetime harem of super powered alien females. Totally bonded females. For life. Damn.

Logan turned a contemplative look at Akitsu again. She had been in a state of half arousal all morning. He could smell her vanilla musk for inducing a male to mate with her, and it was working, Logan realized as he shifted to alleviate a little of his growing phallic pressure. Wait. What if he already had a bonded female? Just where did Akitsu fit in the Sekirei Plan anyway? Kazehana had explained that Akitsu had been an experiment, failed or successful Kazehana hadn't known, or even about the experiment's purpose, but it had left Akitsu unable to bond normally, possibly emotionally hindered, and maybe even brain damaged. She did talk slow, wasn't much for multitasking, and it took a while for her to think through concepts and word meanings. Yet Logan had seen Akitsu very intelligently improvise under pressure, fulfill multiple objectives once given to her, instinctively react incredibly quick, and even anticipate events. And she was utterly loyal, trusting, and protective of him, and now constantly horny too, so that meant? Damn.

"Akitsu-chan, who am I?" Logan asked cautiously.

"Logan-chan." Akitsu didn't even look up from the robotic moving of food to mouth with her chopsticks.

"What am I?"

"Perfect... and my Ashikabi." Again, she simply kept eating as Logan winced. There was that weird Ashikabi word!

With that there was little doubt now. Akitsu may not be physically or psychically bonded to him as a normal Sekirei, but she was clearly emotionally bonded, maybe even more deeply than normal in compensation and greatly desiring the physical thing too. Okay, two more tests.

"When I die, what will happen to you?" Logan peered at her facial expression closely. Nothing.

"I will die." The rice and curry movement didn't even pause.

"What will happen if I bond with other Sekirei?"

"My Ashikabi gets more protection and another mate." Didn't even blink. Mate. Another "no doubt about it" type word. There it was. Totally bonded all right. REAL deep too. No human female would have readily responded like that. Damn.

Okay, now what? Whether he had intended to bond with her or not, there would be no leaving Akitsu on her own in this rented apartment after MBI's pursuit was permanently discouraged. On the other hand, Logan rubbed his chin while shrugging, there could be worse fates than both of them living a reclusive life style together in the northern wildernesses. She could certainly stand the cold too, as well as be a nice and probably very responsive bed warmer. Maybe one more question needed to be asked here.

"Uhhh, Akitsu-chan," Logan began before pausing to make sure he wanted to ask it, and then shrugged again. Oh well, what the hell. "Think carefully about this. You will always be in danger with me like my murdered wife Itsu. Knowing this, do you want to mate with me, uhhh, physically, you know, as male and female?"

This time Akitsu's chopsticks stopped in mid air, food falling unheeded back into her bowl. She looked up, instantly blushing a furious deep red as her eyes read the serious intent in his. She blinked twice with slightly widened eyes, and then nodded once. Her chopsticks dropped into her bowl. It clearly looked like deadly danger meant nothing to her, but mating meant everything, at least more than eating.

"Now?" She cocked her head to one side to blink at him again and then sent an interested glance at their rolled and tied double futon on the floor in the living area adjoining the kitchenette. Her eyes dropped to the cloth belt tying her shortened white kimono together. She parted the overlapping cloth of her dress to observe that her panties would also have to be taken off. Now see, Logan somewhat nervously observed her thinking. There was mental preparation and planning going on in there.

"Uhhh, no," Logan cleared his throat, trying to look nonchalant while having second thoughts conflicting with his other hardening part. Man, what had he just done? "Ummm, maybe later, much later. Finish eating while I try to think about our situation some more, okay?"

"Okay." The robotic eating began anew.

So, he had a lifetime live-in lover at the very least and maybe even a formal alien wife sometime in the future. Logan began rubbing his forehead with one hand as his head was starting to ache even worse. Damn. Just as Kazehana had implied, getting more Sekirei allies for fighting against MBI came with a giant caveat of highly attached Sekirei matrimony, maybe even multiples. Not practical for a budget minded lone wolf type like him. Unless he could convince an already bonded Sekirei to cooperate with him, and that meant organizing their Ashikabi like that Higa as allies. Again, little chance of that if he knew self serving human nature, and he did.

Hold on here. Maybe he could bypass Ashikabi interference. Kazehana had said something about winged Sekirei receiving enough damage to lose their bonding to their Ashikabi. And hadn't she also said something about a psychic attack upon their bonding mark with something called a Norito that would totally sever all ties to an Ashikabi? Which didn't apply to Akitsu since MBI's experiments on her left her basically psychically bonded to herself and now emotionally to him while immune to any Norito. Kazehana had also said that all Sekirei that had lost their bonding through physical and/or psychic damage were taken back to the MBI labs for what? Storage and further study? Organ harvesting? Possible cloning material? Regeneration? With their bonding instincts gone? Now that last could be real interesting for him in future recruiting without the lifetime Ashikabi commitment thingy bogging him down for, for... WAIT!

Regeneration. That was the key. And the reason for Sekirei recovery once they were killed. What if Micky's real purpose in the Sekirei Plan was to deliberately get the Sekirei to remove their Ashikabi bonding by killing each other instead of getting doped up and permanently damaged? Akitsu HAD been the failed experiment for an easier drugging alternative to bypass Ashikabi bonding! At any rate, Micky still had the means to have a future army of super powered aliens already indoctrinated for obedience and highly trained fighters as well, fighters without any divided loyalties between him and any Ashikabi. All Micky had to do was regenerate killed Sekirei, and thus still handily circumvent Sekirei bonding instincts without permanent brain damage.

What could a hundred plus adult alien Sekirei do to the combined military might of planet Earth? Kazehana had admitted the first five of them as the original Disciplinary Squad under Miya Asama's leadership had decimated combined land, sea, and air attempts of at least two large scale military invasions of Kamakura Island. And that was just defending the place where the Sekirei ship had been found and the Sekirei had been raised by Micky and his MBI cohorts. What could they do attacking? A LOT obviously, maybe even completely wiping out all opposition easily. Old crazy, four eyed geek Micky was maybe planning to use forcefully non bonded and regenerated Sekirei to take over the world? Now that finally made the most sense out of an otherwise screwy sounding Sekirei Plan. All Minaka had to do was kill the one eventual winner to get his regenerated and permanently "Ashikabi unattached" army, and not risk slaying 106 of them himself and fomenting a Sekirei rebellion against MBI in the process.

Now, assuming that last was true, Logan squinted as he tried really hard to concentrate, how to royally screw that up in such a way as to get Micky, his MBI, AND his sneaky Disciplinary Squad off his ass? Well, the answer was actually easy if somewhat difficult to accomplish, given the Sekirei's obviously inherent belligerent natures and training. All he had to do was to keep Sekirei from killing each other after they found their Ashikabi. Call it The Logan Plan.

Micky couldn't get his world conquering alien army without at the very least cutting a deal with Logan blocking his big and eventually sure to fail ambitions. Once a deal was made, they would immediately become small potatoes too small to bother. Logan and Akitsu could then disappear into the northern mountains without looking back and just let the whole damn world go screw. Why should they care? Besides, hadn't every would be world dictator scheme Logan had been involved in come to grief? He was pretty sure they had. Micky eventually wouldn't be any different, no matter how many alien fighters he had.

Yep. There's the new Logan Plan. Keep Sekirei alive for awhile, and parlay that into a hale and hearty farewell and good riddance from Micky and his gang right on out of Tokyo, never to be seen or heard from again. But, Logan reasoned, he could still use some help for that though. Every Sekirei battle wouldn't be as easy to break up as the twin lightning users going after that pretty cloth waving gal last night. What if there were fights at the same time in different locations?

Perhaps, Logan frowned, he needed to run this all past Kazehana first. She seemed to have a fairly level head on her shoulders for a confirmed drunk and a Sekirei not actively wanting an Ashikabi. She had certainly been a mine of information about MBI and Sekirei history last night in Shiba Park. That had really helped him understand his current situation better. From her reaction to Itsu's tragic death, it also helped that Kazehana was a romantic that probably wanted her Sekirei peers to find a lifetime of love with their Ashikabi, not killing each other. Therefore, she would definitely be less than thrilled with Micky's possible motives in using his Sekirei Plan to destroy all Sekirei love lives. Also, a bachelorette type wind user, especially teamed with Akitsu, could be very, very helpful when it came to breaking up Sekirei duels and even multiple gang fights.

Who else could he get that might be willing to join The Logan Plan with little matrimonial risk? Hey, that's right! Kazehana had mentioned almost off hand her old squad leader was a real bad ass in a fight, and Miya Asama was a long time grieving widow too! Not bonded nor looking to be! Maybe not even able to! And a highly disenchanted former colleague/possible enemy of Micky! Here was a potentially very powerful ally that Kazehana had said was some kind of big time, world class sonic user as well as a classical sword fighter as good as and maybe even better than Karasuba. One that didn't need or want a lifetime mate too. There ya go. Miya also owned that Izumo Inn which was most probably where he could still find Kazehana sleeping off her drunk. Oh yeah, and that gender confused and idiot fire user named Homura. Another potential non bonding candidate, but probably not easy ally material now, eh?

Logan sighed. So he had screwed up again last night and threatened to kill the guy/gal. Eh. Shit happens. Well, if he and Akitsu waited until after dark to go to Izumo Inn, maybe Homura would have left for work, and MBI's attempts at visual satellite acquiring/tracking him and Akitsu would be much less effective. He would also have to assume Izumo Inn was under MBI surveillance given Miya's history and current seemingly adversarial stalemate status with Micky. It just called for a little undercover work is all, and he seemed to remember he had been pretty good at that too.

Actually, Logan had anticipated going about Tokyo incognito earlier at the Shinagawa mall where he had gotten a haircut, a new "salary man" type of suit, fake glasses, shades, and shoes along with other casual clothes. Akitsu got makeup to cover her pink forehead logo, sandals, and a couple of traditional dresses to wear with a plain white scarf for her covering her hair. After using only cash to buy a tent, backpacks, some camping/cooking gear, a small re-curved bow, and a quiver filled with hunting arrows in a sporting goods store, he had then given Akitsu's MBI card to a wild looking gang of mall roaming teenagers that were obviously ditching school for the day. Logan had told them MBI was doing a purchasing survey on teen mall buying habits and needed them to use its unlimited credit to purchase whatever they wanted.

During the following furor, several wallets from rubbernecking shoppers had been neatly pick-pocketed for their contents' later use as I.D. models. He and Akitsu had then went to the mall restrooms to hurriedly shave his Fumanchu mustache and mutton chop sideburns, put on her makeup and scarf, and change clothes. Even simple changes were effective in hiding and moving around unknown towns, he had reasoned from dim experience, and after all, Tokyo was one damn big city with millions and millions of people, no matter how sophisticated MBI's equipment might be. Just trying to get a bead on them again would certainly drive a few MBI goons nuts.

They had slipped out a mall side exit in a crowd of ordinary looking customers and caught a bus into the northern and more old style Asakusa District. A short walking and later rickshaw tour had found a small and furnished back alley apartment whose anxious, not too picky landlord was only too willing to take a year lease in cash. After lunch, Logan intended to buy a modest computer system and camera in order to make a few phony I.D.'s for them both as well as purchase a small used truck and maybe even an old motorcycle for local transport/future getaway vehicles. Then they had bought a few groceries and a plain take out lunch to settle into their new digs while he plotted their immediate future; a future defined by his new masterpiece of reasoning, The Logan Plan. The nostalgic sights, sounds, and smells coming from the bustling narrow alley and even busier nearby street that was filled with small shops, restaurants, and visitors/tourists headed for the Asakusa jinja Shrine made Logan feel almost relaxed and at home somehow. He was now a lot less tense than last night's Kabuki theater and mental sparring with that sneaky Karasuba in Kabukichō.

Maybe, Logan absently looked up at the small apartment's off white ceiling, he should send a little note of apology to the lightning twins along with some food and the cooking pots and clothes stolen from the udon joint. Kazehana had said the two gals were making due under very primitive, half starved, and poor circumstances thanks to bonding with a lazy bum Ashikabi. He could get the cloth user some perfume too for an apology, and a case of expensive sake for Kazehana for her valuable and informative companionship last night. He might even get Homura a fireproof watch or something. After all, there weren't any reasons for not building a few constructive bridges to possible allies now, and especially if they all got damaged, regenerated, and opened to non bonding recruitment into The Logan Plan; a way for them all to gain a mutually free future to go and do as they pleased. What should he buy as an introductory gift for Miya if they visited Maison Izumo later tonight?

Schnickt! Man he loved the way these things worked! It was like getting an instant hard on. He glanced at the bow and quiver full of arrows that he had bought pretty much on a whim other than he loved to bow hunt wilderness game. On the other hand, now that he had decided to raise some one man hell with MBI, what could he accomplish in a few crowded vehicle compounds complete with fuel tanks that could now easily be slashed open and a few napalm tipped fire arrows? Maybe even add a few ice walls to stymie firefighting equipment. Nice. Hmmm. Hadn't he done similar things before? And then slashed a card calling X on front gate on the way out? Heh. That sounded sexy too. Schnickt!

Logan, still deep in maybe not so coherent nor cogent thought, didn't see or even sense a now totally naked and already aroused Akitsu approach him from behind as his phallic feeling blades withdrew into his arm. Nor did he realize he had been emitting a little mating musk of his own while thinking of ways to use his weapons. Akitsu's single minded thoughts weren't on future planning, blade weapons, going anywhere for the rest of the afternoon, nor the entire coming night either. Just on Logan's centrally located and brainless weapon. She said one word that didn't need parsed for meaning or further thought.

"NOW!"

Schnickt!

***scene break***

Miya Asama, wearing a frown of long suffering disapproval as well as her usual purple and white traditional shaman/minor priestess attire, gave a sprawled out Kazehana a very jaundiced look.

She then glanced at Homura, Uzume, and an unusually agitated Matsu respectfully kneeling on the floor pillows of Matsu's hidden room.

"You say you have something of great interest for me," Miya said dryly while fixing Matsu with a flat stare, "and yet the Public Obscenity is here? This better be good, or else."

Matsu winced uncomfortably as did Uzume and Homura. There was no real telling what Miya's "or else" exactly meant, but from past experience it wasn't anything the trio of Sekirei wanted to see or have applied. Kazehana, still hung over and not as intimidated, simply pouted in wounded insincerity.

"Is that any way to welcome a guest, Miya?" Kazehana sighed as she struggled to prop herself up on one elbow and swipe her long hair away from covering her face. The fact that her tight purple miniskirt was now doing little to contain her massive cleavage nor cover her sexy panties and bodacious backsides didn't faze her either. After all, Miya and the other three had seen Kazehana at her worst many times before.

"Guest, no, nuisance, yes," Miya responded irritably. "Make this quick Matsu. I'm in the middle of preparing our dinner. What has happened this time? And if it involves watching another porn star as your possible future Ashikabi, YOU will VERY greatly regret calling me up here to..."

"NO! NO!" Matsu interrupted hastily while whipping off her rather comical looking glasses and giving Miya a serious and mature look as Number 02, the oldest of all Earth raised Sekirei. "This is way beyond that, Miya, trust me! Look at this!"

Matsu activated a large blank screen that began running a slowly panning police video of Shiba Park. She then began her prepared narrative.

"This is all I've been able to hack out of MBI's data banks so far. Night before last Tokyo police responded to an officer in trouble, officer down call after a unit was dispatched to investigate two suspicious persons in Shiba Park. This is what they found. Note the totally ripped and demolished car up in the top of the cherry tree and the grounded MBI helicopter. The wounded officer, his jaw was broken, wrote a statement saying that a wild bear man had resisted investigation when asked for identification. The suspect went berserk when ordered to submit to a search. After punching the policeman once, the suspect then somehow slashed the car to ribbons, picked it up, and tossed it more than a hundred meters into the treetop. Meanwhile, an MBI helicopter flying over the park had to make a hard landing when its jet turbine engine was packed with ice. MBI's Disciplinary Squad investigated and the cop's original report was confirmed by the helicopter pilot who witnessed the berserk man's attack. Minaka ordered a full scale search of Tokyo for the suspect using every resource available to MBI, because a scrapped number Sekirei, an ice user named Akitsu, had violently escaped MBI's labs three nights ago and was now suspected of teaming up with the cop's attacker."

"A scrapped number is on the loose? An ice user?" Miya's eyes narrowed. "Is it poor Number 07?"

"Most probably," Matsu shrugged while shaking her head negatively. "There's no way of knowing for sure since 07 was sequestered away from us when we were all very young, and there was another one scrapped too, if I recall. There are no digitally stored records in MBI's data banks on either of them as well, just like most of Number 08 Yume's history has been deleted or buried."

"This could be very serious," Miya nodded thoughtfully, "and even very beneficial if we could bring her here under favorable circumstances. Who is the wild man? Another Sekirei Minaka has hidden from us all these years? The other scrapped number?"

"No, I don't know what he is! I'm almost completely sure he's NOT a Sekirei, since Minaka HAS made him an Ashikabi in the Sekirei Plan for unknown reasons, except Logan refuses to participate. This is what I've been able to learn up to now," Matsu began punching her keyboard again. This time Karasuba's abbreviated phone video of Logan rudely giving Micky the brushoff began to run as Matsu started another narrative.

"Our wild man claims amnesia, although he gave his name as Logan, no surname, male Caucasian in his late thirties, 160 centimeters tall, estimated at weighing 136 kilos, black hair, blue eyes, extremely muscular..."

"Wait," Miya commanded while frowning, "136 kilos? That's way too heavy for his height and even if he has a muscular physique."

"He's a walking tank, Miya, believe it!" Uzume spoke up for the first time. "I had a hold on him last night and couldn't budge him an inch. He is also WAY stronger than he looks!"

"And totally immune to Hibiki and Hikari's combined lightning," Homura added in wide eyed agreement, "quicker than anyone I've ever seen except maybe you and Karasuba. He's got these long, sharp, and pointy claws that come out of his right knuckles, and he's REAL protective of Akitsu. He is one wild eyed, crazy ass, fearless sonofabitch that says he survived the atomic blast at Nagasaki, and I believe him!"

"What?" Miya scowled in disbelief at Homura. "Nagasaki?"

"Hey, this is what happened from the first time I saw him, Karasuba, and Akitsu outside the pachinko parlor across the street where I work." Homura began and commenced to retell his encounter with Logan from the start, including the battle with the lightning twins, Uzume and himself, salvation by Kazehana, and through the morning taxi ride. A long silence followed before Matsu began again.

"There is no record of Logan ever being in Nagasaki," Matsu adjusted her glasses with one finger as she peered at the points enumerated on her electronic table. "There are no digital records of him in any data base in Japan, Asia, and anywhere else in the world before two nights ago. No records of travel or financial transactions either. It's like he didn't exist at all anywhere before then. According to a short report Haihane filed for Minaka this morning, Logan is immune to chloral hydrate, has an extremely sensitive nose, and has gotten Akitsu to emotionally bond with him. She's VERY protective of him.

"Karasuba says he likes expensive cigars, Kobe steaks, sake, beer, and public bathing, appears to be an old fashioned type of gentleman for an utterly ruthless and blunt speaking bastard, but still a fun and funny joke telling date that..."

"He's a rude and uncouth and an insulting jerk!" Uzume fumed in interruption. She nodded once in righteous indignation and then folded her arms over her generous breasts that were bulging her pullover cotton shirt to its stretching limit. Homura gave her a quick glance of annoyance, but at least she was wearing more than just her panties for once.

"Karasuba?" Miya's right eyebrow went up as the rest of the room chilled noticeably.

"She took Logan and Akitsu out on the town last night after this phone video was made," Matsu shrugged while ignoring Miya's sudden coldness and Uzume's agitated attitude. "According to Haihane's report to Minaka, instead of capturing Logan and Akitsu with knockout drops, Karasuba got absolutely crocked out of her mind when Logan drank them both under the table. And from the cash paid out reports and complaints, Logan then used a drunk and sword waving Karasuba to shakedown a LOT of the nightspots in Kabukichō before she passed out on a bench across from Homura's host club. She's marked excused duty for the next twenty four hours on MBI's security roster. She must be VERY hungover. Logan and Akitsu ditched Homura and Kazehana this morning at Shinagawa, set off a bunch of false leads, went into a nearby mall, and simply disappeared without a trace. MBI is going absolutely nuts and running Benitsubasa and Haihane ragged all over the country trying to find them even now."

"And then YOU went drinking with him after he was with Karasuba?" Miya gave Kazehana a look of disbelief tinged with disgust. "And now YOU look like THIS?"

"So the man can really hold his drink, and even if he got a little crazy with Homura, he backed off when I asked him nicely. Actually, he's very sweet and romantic once you get to know him," Kazehana also ignored Miya's chilly tone and Uzume's derisive snort. "He said he woke up in the park three nights ago, and now it reminds him of a place named Jasmine Falls where he and his pregnant wife Itsu used to make love. He was very, very sad when she was murdered and their unborn son was taken from her womb."

Matsu's fingers flew over her keyboard in a new search.

"There is no Jasmine Falls in Japan." The red haired Sekirei sat back in renewed frustration. "What else do you know about him that we haven't covered Onee-chan?"

"Ummm, well, he has this certain gentlemanly je ne sais quoi about him," Kazehana closed her eyes and took a deep, shoulder scrunching breath before letting it out as if reliving being close to Logan. "It's very appealing, and I think he's no stranger to pleasing a woman like she wants to be pleased either, even if he didn't try anything with me. Like I said, a real gentleman."

"Oh please!" Uzume rolled her eyes. "He's a giant ass!"

"Au contraire! And he has a very manly, appealing, sexy, leather smell about him," Kazehana continued unfazed. "He's big, warm, solid, gentle, and very secure to be around. He treated both Akitsu and me very tenderly, and like I said, didn't try to take any advantage when he could have. Darn it. He also helped Hibiki, Hikari, and Karasuba get safely home without being attacked from any other Sekirei. Logan sings a very sad song beautifully in English with maybe a British or even Canadian accent. It made me cry, and his skins heals instantly when his blades retract."

"Instant regeneration?" Miya's mouth dropped open in frowning surprise. She mentally chewed all this over before looking at an equally surprised Matsu. "Conclusions? Speculation? Recommendations?"

"Most definitely not normal human in abilities, not Sekirei either, possible unknown type of alien, rare human mutation, or militarily enhanced cyborg," Matsu replied promptly even though instantly miffed about Kazehana not mentioning this important regeneration detail earlier, "A sudden recent appearance and yet way too familiar and versed in old fashioned customs and charm. Indicates long term experience and training in keeping totally hidden despite park incident. That could be an infiltration technique to get enemies looking at one outlandish version of his persona while he goes to ground and changes his looks for misdirection. Doubtful but possible.

"He fits the profile of a very experienced, professional, lone wolf type assassin, target and/or targets unknown, affiliation and/or employer unknown, but from two emotional and irrational outbursts he has possibly suffered serious head damage that is taking some regeneration time for recovery, if he can. His alliance/bonding with the scrapped number appears accidental yet fortunate for both. Probability of employment by MBI very low, much, much higher with an outside country, agency, off world competitor trying once again to steal Sekirei secrets and technology. Ability to destroy MBI or at least completely thwart Minaka's Sekirei Plan very high also. Has the potential to be a VERY powerful Ashikabi. The question is if he decides to compete in the Sekirei Plan, who else will he want to wing? Recommend extreme caution but approach and engage for further information."

"You volunteering?" Miya's raised laconic eyebrows that matched the tone of her voice.

"He's," Matsu paused while searching for the right word, "intriguing. I know you warned me earlier, but just take a look at this video of Akitsu bathing him in public while he was unconscious, and you'll see for yourself."

"Ooooo!" Kazehana immediately exclaimed in closer leaning interest as the brief video hit the interesting parts and then began looping over and over. "I LIKEE!"

"Damn," breathed a wincing and envious Homura.

"Geez," Uzume gaped in wide eyed incredulity. "The jerk is a freak too!"

Miya, also surprised and yet for once curiously not offended, covered her mouth with her right palm and murmured, "Oh my!"

The video kept looping over and over amidst a long silence.

"What sad song did this Logan sing to you, Kazehana?" Miya self consciously attempted to deflect the other Sekirei's prurient interest in the video and get back to deciding what course of action actually needed to be taken with this Logan. "What was the significance of it?"

"I'll research it if somebody could tell me which song it is," Matsu said absently while not taking her once again mesmerized eyes away from the computer screen.

"Ummm, I can remember a few lyrics," Kazehana hugged herself somewhat dreamily.

"That's just gross! I am so out of here!" Uzume finally declared in disgust, stood up, hitched up her Capri jeans, and sidled past Miya through the room's wall sized entrance. Homura silently followed her with eyes downcast in self conscious embarrassment.

"I'm going to finish dinner," Miya added with seeming indifference and turning away. "I need some time to think about all this. Call me if you learn anything more about this Logan."

Much later, Miya went out into her back yard to sit quietly on a circular stone bench that her dead husband had installed around a fragrantly blooming Saucer Magnolia tree. The clear night sky above northern Tokyo was putting on a lovely midnight display of the Milky Way Galaxy. The topic over dinner had of course been Logan, who was he, what was he, why was he here, et cetera, and most importantly, how was he going to impact MBI's Sekirei Plan. Matsu and Kazehana hadn't even bothered to hide their mutually and rapidly growing interest in the guy, even chatting about the possibilities of finding him and Akitsu sometime in the very near future and inviting them to dinner. The two of them were even now upstairs monitoring and laughing at Benitsubasa and Haihane's ongoing and highly frustrated reports of failed attempts in locating and capturing their elusive quarry.

As for Miya, she had no problem in forthrightly probing Logan for more information and his future intent over a meal, but for the first time in the years since she had become a widow, she was now experiencing an unusual feeling of uncertainty and even a longing for a brighter and loving future for herself. She was, after all, a still young, flesh and blood female, and that provocative yet natural bathing video of Logan had been quite …. disturbing... as were the lyrics to the tune he had sung to Kazehana.

Aside from all the other mysterious and possibly dangerous things about him, the simple fact that an old sad song made Logan long for his tragic lost love named Itsu was actually quite appealing to Miya's well hidden romantic side, for it mirrored how she had always felt about her dead husband up to now. Looking upward, Miya shook her long and tied back, lavender colored hair in wonderment. Was she going nuts? She had loved her dead husband with all of her heart and still grieved for him. So why was she now dreamily sitting under a magnolia tree in her back yard, schoolgirl jealous of Karasuba, and repeatedly remembering the scenes from Logan's bathing video while staring up at the skies of a very starry, starry night?


	5. Chapter 5

**Starry Starry Nights**

**Chapter Five – Fifth Night**

Life was good. Logan took the stub of his three quarter smoked cigar out of the right side of his mouth and held it up in Tokyo's evening twilight to contemplate whether it was worth lighting again. Nope, but it still had a very mellow smell and taste. Might as well chew on it some more then. Nothing like a $250 dollar chaw, and Aki-chan didn't seem to mind kissing him before, during, or even after a smoke, let alone teeth brushed, mouth-washed, Tic Tac refreshed, or whatever. Actually, nothing seemed to matter to Akitsu when it came to their lovemaking. She was one totally uninhibited chick. He took another deep sniff of his expensive unlit smoke, exhaling in pleasure as it had combined with the aromas of thick rib-eye steaks and shrimp kebabs being grilled on their portable hibachi behind him. Logan reached down beside his folding canvas camping chair for his open cold can of Canadian Gold beer to take a deep swig before sticking his cigar stub back into the right side of his mouth.

He sighed again in sheer contentment as he crossed his legs to balance his sketchbook. If a fella had to camp out all day on a warm skyscraper roof doing a little recon work, it sure was nice having all the amenities; a hot lover/cook who could instantly chill a cooler and/or a single can of beer, a thick sleeping bag for napping, a big box of assorted snacks, steaks and shrimp kebabs on the barbie, a camouflage tarp for shade, and a couple of comfy camp chairs. The only problem had been, although they had gotten here before dawn to set up, Aki-chan had swilled almost half of their beer prior to and while eating their bento lunch. The warmer afternoon on this rooftop had also taken its toll on their large stash of brew. Since Logan also wanted to observe the night security setup of MBI's Tokyo compound, it was going to be a close call whether to stick it out for a couple more hours or risk a quick beer run. Sometimes, Logan sighed again in minor irritation, life was all about making these little annoying choices, especially if Aki-chan kept chugging away.

On the other hand, Akitsu was proving to be an almost ideal female companion for him even if she did chug more than her share of beer; no irritating chatter, willing worker, quick learner, powerful ranged fighter, and VERY responsive and uninhibited lover that seemed bent on learning the heterosexual positions/techniques of the Kama Sutra in record time. And she was surprisingly as well as intensely affectionate. Matter of fact, after their first torrid coupling, Akitsu had silently and lightly trailed the fingertips of one hand across his cheeks and had kept doing it a lot since. Hell, his face was almost raw. He had since learned in the last thirty hours or so that she was just expressing her extreme loving tenderness with those actions. He had gotten a lot of it after their first earth moving union because whatever Akitsu's virgin body had lacked in her ability to verbalize her moods, the rest of her made up for with intense, silent multiple orgasms that had left her shivering uncontrollably no matter what position she was in. And of course like a typical male dumb ass, he had overdone it with her first experiences at making love. She paused after stooping down and turning their grilling steaks with a pair of tongs to stand and moved somewhat stiffly behind him to caress his left cheek again.

"You still a little sore, honey?" Logan captured and kissed her caressing fingertips affectionately.

"Sore", she nodded with a small shrug of indifference while leaning down for a deep inhale of the back of his neck while hugging him lightly. That was another thing she had happily been doing in her ongoing "honeymoon" type afterglow; hugging, sniffing, and licking him like he was some addictive male pheromone factory she needed to breathe, touch, and taste as much as possible. It had been slightly unsettling at first, but after being intimate all afternoon yesterday, computer shopping and setup, making I.D.'s, mixing/making a few nasty little surprises for MBI with him all night, and camping out on this roof all day today, he was becoming used to it. Still, he wished she'd went a little easier on their Canadian Gold beer supply, but they still had a case of Sapporo that might tide them over until quitting time.

Logan craned his neck a little and cocked his head as he watched another long black limo exit MBI's now open main entrance gates. Snagging the pen from behind his left ear, he ticked off the main points he was looking for to confirm as future targets; power, communication, security command and control, interior transportation routes, vehicle staging areas, outside emergency responder routes. He still had seen no sign of any armed security guards just inside or outside the compound's perimeter, nor the four street level access points for vehicles coming and going. There were a few boots walking and/or standing around the main buildings' front doors, but less than a dozen throughout the interior of the whole place and none outside the walls. The guards acted more or less as doormen and nominal visual deterrents for visitors rather than any serious firing threats. Huh. What a bunch of rookie maroons! Whoever had designed this complex must have been more of an arty fartsy architect/computer geek rather than an experienced military mind.

From everything Logan had observed, drawn, and noted so far, Minaka's security had been set up to rely mainly on orbital as well as street level electronic surveillance, automated/video controlled weapons defense, and three Disciplinary Squad Sekirei. The only problems with all that was the dumb MBI shits had left their main power substation too exposed on the back side of the complex as well as above ground heavy power lines coming from the nearby diesel emergency back up generators leading to every building. Logan hadn't seen any of the Disciplinary Squad members all day either. Besides, those three Sekirei gals could be kept occupied elsewhere when he decided to strike here. Slam the power station and all the generator lines except those going to the hospital/Sekirei labs first as well as all the compound's comm links, and this place would be easy pickings for a little nuisance mayhem.

Okay, Logan shifted his cigar stub to the left as he made another entry note below his large sketch of MBI's entire building, heliport tarmac, vehicle compound, and perimeter layout in downtown Tokyo. Still no more than a dozen pair of boots visible on the evening shift. He had also marked five perimeter points that looked to be either poorly covered by cameras and/or outright blind spots, one conveniently near the middle of the back perimeter wall. Well, let's see, he mused while squinting at his handiwork; overall rectangular layout except for one side and the back exits where there were two wall jogs to accommodate vehicles using nearby offset and angled street intersections.

Logan chuckled lightly to himself in anticipated future vandalism. There were nine buildings total; Minaka's main office tower, perhaps a hundred or so floor skyscraper with the giant clock and sky deck on top, one smaller tower with an ambulance emergency entrance and heliport on the roof that had to be the hospital and labs building, three towers that looked like civilian living condos, two more used for military barracks, one domed recreation/gymnasium/dining/PX/entertainment center, one very large maintenance garage between and servicing the helicopter and wheeled vehicular fleets' parking areas, and one small control tower at the far edge of the helicopter tarmac. The entire perimeter exterior of the complex was lined with wide four lane boulevards that had six major yet easily barricaded intersections. The interior streets of MBI's entire compound were all laid out very conveniently in a blocked grid pattern also. The elevated maglev train station only had one station stop opposite the main gates. Logan shook his head and frowned while still chuckling softly. He almost felt sorry for Micky and his boys at the fun time he and Akitsu were going to have. Nah. Why kid himself? This was going to be a real hoot, and man, was Karasuba going to be pissed!

A sudden whiff of smoked sandalwood assaulted Logan's nostrils and then got stronger. Mr/Ms Flaming Confusion was upwind, high in the air, probably leaping, and coming this way. Well good, Logan shrugged to himself amiably in acceptance of this fortunate meeting. It saved the time in trying to look the gender bending fire user up later at the host club across from that pachinko parlor. Also, now was as good a time as any to try mending this particular relationship and maybe get a new recruit for The Logan Plan. Maybe he could also get Homura to introduce him to that Miya over at Izumo Inn. Come to think of it, since they were going to be busy later, here was incoming help for Logan to catch back up to Kazehana sometime in the near future, as well as give a gift of apology to that pissed off but very pretty cloth user. Even she might like to join The Logan Plan without lifetime bonding. Who knew?

"Company, Aki-chan, a Sekirei, but relax, because it's just," Logan began to mutter over his shoulder and then almost got his beer knocked over by Akitsu bolting in front of his chair. "NO! No, dammit! Stay behind me like we practiced, honey!"

"Protect Logan-chan," Akitsu announced mechanically and somewhat stubbornly while not budging from her anticipatory, head and body swiveling, hands ready to chop, and eye scanning crouch before him.

"Honey, just get behind me, will ya?" Logan repeated quietly while staying seated and protecting his beer and MBI sketch by holding them away from her swaying backsides. "You protect us both against ranged attacks from behind, remember? And I protect you from close combat types in front just like we practiced. Besides, you're blocking my vision and almost spilled my beer. Just trust my fist blades, okay? Trust me. I KNOW how to use them. I don't know how I know, but I KNOW. And don't let the shrimp kebabs get burnt."

"Kebabs?" Akitsu glanced back at him in startled confusion. There seemed to be an instant obvious conflict here that she was having a hard time reconciling as to which duty she had to give priority, protect her Ashikabi or please him.

"Yes, don't let them get overdone, and calm down Kitty Cat. I know this Sekirei. I'm in no danger."

"No danger," she repeated uncertainly, but slowly and warily edged back behind him while doing double takes to see two opposite directions at the same time, who was coming in front and their food grilling behind.

The enhanced aura of cold around Akitsu didn't lessen, however. If this Homura made so much as one tiny hostile twitch towards Logan, she would kill this unknown Sekirei, nor would she allow the grilling kebabs to burn. She made a quick glance down at them, frosted them with a twitch of her left hand to lengthen their cooking, and looked back up in time to see the black garbed and half masked Homura land on the rooftop with his back toward her and walk stiffly towards the roof's edge in front of their hidden camp. She watched him intently for a few seconds before concluding he was either ignoring them or unaware of their presence, either way probably not an immediate threat.

The oblivious fire user Sekirei continued to stand at length with his back turned to Logan and Akitsu, completely unaware of their presence and glaring at the MBI's compound's main building. Homura was obviously not thinking happy thoughts about Micky and his minions. Akitsu watched warily as Logan finally and silently stood up, made placating open palms of peace at her with a facial expression that said for her to just stay relaxed, and then her Ashikabi sauntered noiselessly up behind their deeply brooding and preoccupied visitor.

"Hey Bub!"

"YAAAAAAAH!" Homura shouted hoarsely while leaping/stumbling sideways to three point land on a left knee, left hand, and the ball of a now badly shaking right foot. Homura's right hand was clutching a wildly beating heart. He/she panted up at Logan in wounded, flight response panicked, and wild eyed disbelief.

"You're acting a little too twitchy here, ain't ya Tits?" Logan frowned slightly in good natured and concerned observance as reached down with a helping hand up. "Somebody try to flame your ass lately, or are you always the kinda natural high wire type like this? There's a toilet one floor down inside the roof access door if you feel like you have to piss or clean up something."

"Hah, hah, ha, oh, oh, ha," Homura continued to pant before swallowing hard and standing shakily while ignoring Logan's outstretched hand and replying in righteous outrage. "Damn! NO! I'm not twitchy! And I didn't piss myself! And DON'T ever do that to me again! And, and, YOU'RE the only one that's tried to kill me lately, you, you, and, and, HEY! Whaddya mean TITS?"

"Well, ya got 'em, and a nice little pair there too," Logan flinched in puzzled defense at the transsexual's sudden emo attitude. What in the hell's the matter with a little complimentary and friendly greeting? It wasn't like this he/she Sekirei didn't KNOW, right? "I can see their heat outline though your clothing, and with that smoky sandalwood scent of yours that's kinda like a shrine's holiday burning incense smell, plus your nice, round as a perfect peach ass, hell, you've actually got some real cuteness going for ya other than your bishonen good looks."

"WHAT?" Homura stared at Logan in open mouthed, stiffened, fist clenched, and outraged disbelief.

"So which is it?" Logan's raised eyebrows only displayed guileless and mild small talk interest. "You a guy or a gal at heart?"

"I'm a MAN!" Homura half shouted in rising, scowling anger while self consciously covering and scratching his suddenly itching chest. "I've made love to all kinds of women, dammit! I, I, got a few problems because my adjustments didn't work too good, and I take medicine to stabilize my, but, but, never mind! Dammit! I'm a MAN!"

"Whoa! Hey, hey, Bub, okay, okay, just relax a little. No need to fight yourselves," Logan smiled in total social faux pas oblivion as he jerked a left thumb over his shoulder towards their camping cooler and snack box, "or Aki-chan's liable to burn our steak and kebab dinner and frost all three of us if we get too frisky. You hungry? We got more than enough to share. Or ya want some snacks now and eat later? Hey, we got Pocky, several different fillings of onigiri including crab and calamari, melon bread, and chocolate AND strawberry Yan Yan. They're my favorites. Hey, wanna beer too? Canadian Gold! A really great import, although we got almost a case of Sapporo left too. Better get one of the imports before Aki-chan starts chugging away again though. Hey, I'm real glad you decided to stop by, Bub. I've been meaning to look you up."

"Wha, wha, what did you want to see me for?" Homura, visibly on guard and striving to relax and regain a little more dignified control, shakily got out a cigarette, lit it with a flashing forefinger, and took a quick puff. He/she edged warily sideways and away from Logan's still outstretched hand that could instantly turn into a well remembered three bladed fist. Pocky? Yan Yan? Was Logan some kind of candy giving pervert trying to lull him/her into a perv winging? "YOU told ME to leave you two totally alone, remember? And what are you doing camping out up here anyway? MBI's got video and laser satellites watching and covering every inch of this city you know."

"Yeah, so I heard, so let's get back under the camo awning, but I'm not too worried about being surprised up here. Eyes in the skies are only as good as the human ones watching their feedback monitors, and I haven't found these careless MBI goofs to be too alert at all. If anybody does show up including Kara-chan and her girls, Aki-chan and I can hold 'em off and freeze their legs solid long enough to collect our stuff and scoot. They're not likely to take satellite laser shots at us this close to home base with all those civilians running around in rush hour traffic down below either. Besides, blowing the tops off surrounding buildings is a too public, bad neighbor policy, something Micky most definitely wants to avoid, don't you think? Actually those security pukes down there seem to be too complacent and too overconfident in using their electronic systems as deterrents to begin with, let alone use them to piss this town off or actually watch for threats. Hey, Aki-chan, this is Homura, a fire user. Homura, this is my Akitsu."

"Ummm, pleased to meet you, ummm, Akitsu," Homura bowed his head and tried to be as calm and suave as possible in greeting a scrapped number who, according to Matsu, could be just as, or maybe more, powerful and homicidal nuts as Karasuba. Her perceived Ashikabi Logan was already a proven maniacal whack job. His Akitsu? Kara-chan? Man, there had to be someplace else to be as soon as possible! This was just too weird! On the other hand, Matsu and Miya had asked for more information on Logan, maybe even extending a friendly invitation to dinner at the Maison Izumo when located and if possible; which might be very, very entertaining if Uzume were to be there too.

"Pleased," Akitsu responded tonelessly, but her eyes were intently watching Homura's every move, especially his hands. The fire user kept a bland expression on his face, clasped his hands together, and tried to relax his body, but the silver hairs on the back of his neck felt strange.

"Hey Bub, I really wanted to apologize for the other night," Logan nonchalantly sat back down in his camp chair and invited Homura to sit for a friendly chat also. "I was a little buzzed and a lot pissed at having to spend a very irritating night, so uhhh, cut me a little slack for almost carving you to shreds, will ya? And, uhhh, you know, I think I may have a little temporary anger management issue or two since I got this chronic headache that is constantly pissing me off."

"Little?" Homura gaped oddly at Logan anew while taking another slightly shaky drag on his/her cigarette as he/she sat down. "Then by that definition Mount Fuji is a miniature speed bump! You scared the living crap out of me with that Nagasaki light us up bitch stuff!"

"Well, yeah, I can feel ya dog," Logan nodded in sympathetic understanding and then paused as he noticed Homura giving him a really odd look. Logan shrugged sheepishly as he tried to explain. "I don't know where some of that ol time slangy crap comes from, and uhhh, actually I'm not even sure what it means. I, uhhh, look, I hurt my head recently, pretty bad I guess, and uhhh, it's hard to remember much of anything and the pain makes it hard to hit on all cylinders sometimes. So I'm really sorry about that, and especially about being a little too, ummm, intimidating the other night. It's just that I got some honor and morality code towards helpless females, and well, at least I think I do, or did maybe at one time, so I couldn't let you just flame on and fry those four gals, especially Aki-chan, ya know? Nor those two silly lightning users that ruined my smoke. It was Karasuba who had really pissed me off by that time."

"Did you really pimp her around town like Matsu says you did?" Homura, temporarily and mentally shelving what he/she felt was Logan's really sincere effort to apologize, leaned forward in almost feminine feline curiosity.

"Well, yeah," Logan shrugged indifferently while rolling his eyes in remembered disgust. "Why not? Kara-chan ain't fooling me to what kind of psycho killer she really is. Actually she's pretty straight forward and honest about herself which I kinda admire. Besides, Aki-chan and I needed a little operating capital to start yanking Micky's chain."

"You going to kill Minaka?" Homura now stiffened in wide eyed open interest. This wild ass guy might just be nuts enough to try! And succeed!

"Nah, we're not killing anybody if we can help it," Logan shook his head and waved his hands in negation. Homura's hopes quickly and visibly deflated. "Just getting geared up for The Logan Plan to make these MBI idiots miserable enough to leave us totally alone. Is that what and why you're up here and throwing hate looks over at that clock tower? Thinking about assassinating Micky? You might as well forget it. We've been up here all day watching the compound's setup. You can dream, I guess, but no solitary fire user is going to get near Micky."

"Says you!" Homura huffed bitterly. The Logan Plan? What the hell?

"Yep. Face it," Logan nodded affably. "A stray bullet or one well placed sniper round and you're history, Bub, and there will be enough of 'em fired at you. You won't even get close."

"And I suppose you could?" Homura's voice was chock full of glowering sarcasm.

"Not sure, exactly," Logan frowned in the midst of a far off gaze as if searching his mind for something, "but I feel yeah, probably if the situation was right, and I had decent intel for, say! Who's this Matsu you mentioned? Is she the same brain/intel gathering/computer geek type Sekirei named Matsu that Kazehana said was part of the original Disciplinary Squad? And why would she be interested in Karasuba's pimped out night life? They enemies or friends? She got Karasuba's phone number maybe? So I could give Kara-chan a little jingle later?"

"Matsu? Ummm, yeah she's Number 02, and no friend to Karasuba, nor MBI, believe me, but uhhh, yeah. I'm pretty sure she's got that phone number, or if not, can get it right away. Let me get this straight. You actually want to CALL Karasuba? To chat?"

"Yep. I'm thinking there's a big possibility she'd really want to meet up with me again for a little friendly schmoozing, so yeah, why not?" Logan smiled blandly while putting his MBI sketch down on the roof beside his camp chair and finishing off his beer. He casually tossed the empty can into the big pile of empties growing beside the skyscraper's roof access door. "Say, now that I'm thinking about it, that pretty cloth user that, ummm, got a little pissed off at me the night we met, is she a good friend of yours? I'd like to apologize to her too, and I owe Kazehana some sake. Matter of fact, Akitsu and I have some stuff we'd like to give to those two lightning twins also. Would you mind helping us out? Maybe set up a meet with Kazehana for tomorrow night?"

"Well, sure, I guess. I could get a hold of Uzume and Kazehana, maybe even let you meet Matsu and Miya Asama, my landlady at Maison Izumo too. You'll probably get invited for dinner if I know Miya. She's an extraordinary cook. I'd have to call first though."

"Great! Matter of fact, I've got a little introductory gift for Miya-san also! Uzume was the white silk cloth user's name? Pretty. Goddess of happiness and joy, huh? I really love Japanese names! Kazehana, Wind Flower, or Runny Nose depending how you look at the kanji I guess. Matsu, is a Pine Tree? Kinda weird for a gal, and Miya, Sacred House? Living in Maison Izumo, House of, of, wasn't there a Shinto matchmaking shrine in a city of dreams and myths named Izumo? Maybe on the west coast? And also the name of a battle cruiser in some world war? So House of Marriage Dreams or War? Which is it?"

"Uhhh, both?" Homura squinted at Logan's somewhat disjointed and hard to follow musings. This guy really was a few nuts short of a squirrel's winter hoard for sure!

"Ya know, something else is puzzling me now that I think about it," Logan frowned as he tried to concentrate on what he wanted to ask. "Those adjustments you had, what were they all about?"

"Well, when I was younger and hit puberty," Homura sighed in long suffering self consciousness. This subject was very embarrassing and too intimate to talk about, but this boorish Logan guy just didn't have any social taboos at all and was pretty single minded too. Better just to say it quick and move on. "MBI doctors and adjustment technicians had to administer different drug and hormone therapies to keep my fire powers from going out of control as well try to stop the feminizing of my body. They were only partially successful with their limiters, even when I was really young, and now I still have to take medicines to stay stable, but lately, it takes more, and they do less good. Takehito said if and when I could find an Ashikabi, bonding might be my for sure cure, but finding one would probably prove difficult. And it has, because I've dated dozens of women and haven't reacted to any."

"Takehito?"

"Takehito Asama, Miya's deceased husband, one of the head scientists adjusting the lower number and more powerful Sekirei along with his assistant Seo Kaoru. Seo's the Ashikabi of those twin lightning Sekirei, Hibiki and Hikari. He left MBI, well got kicked out I think, after Takehito was killed in some kind of experiment on Sekirei control rods."

"Thunder and Lightning Twins? Cute. MBI, eh? Adjustments, limiters, therapies, Sekirei control rods, and now conveniently dead and ousted Ashikabi that have already bonded to powerful Sekirei? Interesting," Logan folded his arms over his chest and stared off into the distance apparently in deep thought.

"What's so interesting?" Homura finally asked in mild irritation from feeling that Logan was maybe amused at his/her problems and Sekirei future plight as well.

"Well, tell me, just how were your fire powers really going to go out of control?" Logan shook his head in puzzlement, "or were you maybe just going to be too powerful for Micky TO control? Ya see, they were making adjustments before puberty. What if they hadn't even started and simply left you grow and become whatever you were born to be? All those adjustments, limiters, and therapies imply control to me, maybe even indoctrination through drug induced mind control. And there's even these Sekirei control rods yet? How much and what kind of control do they do? Look, did you ever wonder why you Sekirei were raised at such expense to MBI just to fight each other to the death? Does it even make sense to you?"

"It makes sense when Minaka is a total insane megalomaniac with delusions of being a grand puppet master in this city!"

"City? You're thinking way too small, Bub, and what if Micky isn't quite as insane as you think? Especially if the rest about him is true. Think about this. An alien space ship with advanced technology crashes on this planet. It makes sense for highly competitive countries to try to get to it first, try to reverse engineer everything, and thereby get a huge weapon and technology edge on their rivals. It makes even more sense if they find there's live embryos aboard, with super powers yet, that can be raised, controlled, trained to fight to the death, and turned into super soldiers that can be indoctrinated into doing a lot of dirty work regular troops don't want to do. The problem is, it's been discovered these alien babies got these bonding instincts for love to unimportant individuals that will totally circumvent all that.

"Now suppose one really brilliant puppet master type megalomaniac gets there first with his doctors, technicians, resources, and enough knowledge to gain total super soldier control over all these alien super babies in the beginning and right up through their impressionable growing period. His brainwashing is very effective even when they are adults. And, after a few trial and errors in the form of failed experiments like maybe you and Akitsu and maybe a few others, he's found a really slick way to eliminate the alien individual Ashikabi bonding problem by turning them against each other. Now they're ready for his own use after they've been regenerated with their love bonding removed. What would he have then? A corner on the alien super soldier market? Or maybe an even bigger market for their offspring or clones? At the very least he gets his own alien army to beat every other armed country into submission to realize his puppet master dreams, eh? Do you even realize how much cash the big dog military powers on this planet would shell out just to have one super soldier? I mean, I know, because, ummm, because, I think I, well, I feel really, that I used to be, aw hell, just trust me. It's a LOT of moola!"

"Regenerated? For mind controlled super soldiers?" Homura's mouth hung open in total disbelief. "I don't believe it!"

"Believe it. It's the only thing that makes sense. Micky's Sekirei Plan, the way Kazehana explained it anyway, has some things that says you at least better start. Think. Why else are defeated Sekirei taken immediately back to MBI's labs? And the winner has to stand by to guard the body? What else explains that except once killed they must get quickly chilled and worked on? Hey look, there are no noble and chivalrous gaming rules in real fights to the death. You win or die, right? However in the hell you can do it and no Mr/Ms nice guy/gal. It's that damn simple. Then why did Micky make some really dumb rules for you guys fighting each other? Like announcing names and numbers before combat for the appearance of nobility but actually to just reinforce his conditioning for Sekirei one on one combat? Isn't that just to ensure limited teamwork and only one eventual overall winner despite even harems made by several Ashikabi. It also keeps total body damage needing regeneration to a minimum. Then one and only one survives out of all of you. That last one Micky can kill at his leisure, regenerate, and viola! His Sekirei Plan moves to his next phase that guarantees its profitability to him in so many ways.

"Deal with it, Bub. Micky is playing all you Sekirei for complete fools and indoctrinated tools, and you're letting him, see? And even that doesn't make any sense to me unless your brains are already fried by his adjustment drugs. And you're looking at me now like I'm nuts? At least I got a plan. What you got? More limiting and adjusting drugs and yet still need an Ashikabi to temporarily stay alive or at least get stabilized? Well, there's a few out there already. Don't be so picky and go kiss one. Then figure out why you're so damn eager and stupidly willing to play in Micky's game."

"You're not kidding, are you?" Homura squinted while having an ill concealed and highly doubtful expression of Logan's sanity. "You really believe this?"

"Well, whether you believe all what I think or not, I guess it really doesn't matter to me now that I think about it some more. It's your temporary funeral, not mine. Just do me a favor and try to stay alive as you are for week or so until Aki-chan and I can bargain our way out of town. Wait. Huh. Maybe that's what that song means," Logan, once again with a far off dreamy expression on his face, began an almost tuneless recital of some old song lyrics that made Homura feel really leery about sitting so close to such a complete loony. "Now I understand, what you tried to say to me, how you suffered for your sanity, how you tried to set them free, but they did not listen they did not know how."

Stopping abruptly, Logan simply shrugged and shook his head in wonder at Homura's obtuseness, then appeared to just mentally drop the whole subject while staring in re-focused interest down into MBI's compound.

A long silence ensued as Homura simply continued to stare in confused wonder at Logan. There was just too much to sift through; too many implications that shook every belief he/she had been raised to hold true, too much doubt about the motives of MBI personnel he/she had liked and trusted for years and years, too many questions about why hadn't he/she just been left alone as a child to become whatever he/she had been born to become, way too many doubts about Logan's half scrambled mental state, and yet?

"Steaks and kebabs done, Logan-chan," Akitsu announced to eventually break the silence while reaching for the last imported beer in the cooler.

"Okay! Let's eat, Bub!" Logan sniffed appreciatively at the steaks' aroma while carefully putting his cigar stub down on his MBI sketch. He snagged a shrimp kebab and began munching contentedly before pausing to remember his manners towards a guest. SCHNICKT! Homura flinched badly as Logan used the suddenly appearing and incredibly sharp blades from both fists to slash a steak into bite sized cubes while the thick slab of grilled meat was still on the slightly smoking hibachi, and then speared the results onto a paper plate, three at a time. He offered the medium rare cubes to Homura along with a plastic fork, shrimp kebab, and a can of Sapporo beer that Akitsu agreeably frosted when Logan held it up. Homura gulped anew in sudden wide eyed surprise at the instant appearance and easy use of those scary looking long blades.

"Let me, uhhh, call Matsu for the phone number you want first, and, uhhh, also set up your visit to Izumo Inn tomorrow evening?" Homura nervously flicked away his cigarette to reach for his video phone while shaking his head at the surreal quality of this entire situation. Geez, this guy really WAS a freak in more ways than one! On the other hand, what if this crazy ass Logan was right about Minaka? Well, Matsu and Miya wanted to meet and quiz these two total nut jobs? Then let them sort it out while he/she listened in. Why not tomorrow night? And just how was Logan planning on making Minaka miserable? Or bargain for a way out of town? The Logan Plan? Ummm, better let Miya ask for details that one, and hope like hell Kazehana was around to keep Logan calm for the whole visit.

Logan nodded at Homura and smiled fondly at Akitsu, thanking her for staying calm for him and doing a great job on the grilling. This earned him another tender cheek caress and sniffing hug while she snaked another beer out of the cooler and handed it to him, instantly chilled.

Later, after dinner was over, a calmer yet still wary Homura had left, and their rooftop recon camp stowed for a return to their apartment, Logan idly used one blade protruding from his right fist to carve a few words just for Karasuba on the roof access metal door. Logan chuckled darkly to himself as he pictured how pissed/confused she would be when reading them. Then he smiled fondly again at Akitsu. Life was good.

***scene break***

"Oh, MBI ain't too alert," Logan sang softly to himself in juvenile pleasure as the steel blades from his right fist slashed through the underside of the parked helicopter's jet turbine engine. "Karasuba just can't flirt. Old four eyed Micky, has stomped on his dicky. Now it will not squirt. La deedee dee da dee da. Yes, we whistle while we work, hum, tee tum tee tum tee tum."

He stepped back to admire his handiwork on the last vehicle in the fleet lined up at the end of MBI's heliport tarmac. It still lacked a little of Akitsu's special symmetry. Logan lifted his black face mask, took the unlit stub of his cigar out of his mouth, looked it over, and decided it still had a little chewing left before turning to saunter back and stand beside the waiting Akitsu. He slipped an affectionate left arm around her slim waist and leaned over to give her the first kiss he owed on her open and expectant lips. That was the deal she had insisted on for giving up some extended futon play time to do a little more shopping tonight when they were done here, one destroyed vehicle, one kiss owed. There was a LOT of kissing owed to Akitsu in his near future.

"Okay, thump it, Kitty Cat."

A large block of ice, wider, longer and possibly four times thicker than the already damaged and now totally doomed helicopter, formed in the air a few hundred meters above it. Gravity took over to semi flatten the unmanned machine. Akitsu then waved her left hand and both lines of the dozen or so staged MBI marked helicopters were now also cubically encased in a giant block of even more ice about 100 meters per side. There, Logan nodded in satisfaction, that did it. The whole airfield, maintenance garage, and adjoining parking lots of marked 4×4 trucks, Humvees, and smaller Jeeps also now had that "Godzilla stomped" and cubic arctic ice flow ambiance just like MBI's limo fleet and garage.

"More?" Akitsu asked as she carefully glanced around to see if anything on his list was left for her to do. She mustn't miss a single assignment from her beloved Ashikabi.

"Nope, last one, Aki-chan, let's jump out, take a last peek around, head home, change out of our gear on our apartment roof, and go shopping to stock whatever safe houses we come up with tomorrow."

Logan looked around and spotted the low roofed building beyond the back perimeter wall where they had shucked their casual clothes worn over their continually cooled black attack outfits. He pointed to where they should go, and Akitsu leaped them atop his target to pick up their bag of clothes to change into before they approached their Asakusa apartment. As Akitsu grabbed up the black cloth bag stuffed with their clothing, Logan turned to take one last look at MBI's Tokyo compound. Man, it was amazing how much damage could be done when a talented, ninja clad couple really hustled! And it helped to have a little fun while working too, right?

Slashing all the tires and jet turbine engines, tossing all kinds of stuff around, and jumping up into buildings and wrecking whatever had looked interesting hadn't really been necessary with Akitsu's power for mass destruction. It had just been mindless, rampaging teen vandalism actually, but what the hell? Why should Aki-chan have all the fun even if she was almost as quick as he? Besides, this little attack on MBI's compound had really been the first good tests of just how fast he could run, how high he could jump, how well he could see in total darkness, how much damage he could do with his fist blades on different materials, how much he could easily lift and/or throw, and especially how quick he could move while still in total control. And it HAD been a real hoot!

Their few minutes of co-joined fun were now over though, because multiple sirens finally began sounding in the distance. Although they were echoing within the canyons of Tokyo's skyscrapers, the sirens, aka cops, were definitely converging towards MBI's complex. That meant Karasuba and her clawed young underling cooling their heels and by now angrily waiting for him to show in Shiba Park had probably been alerted too, or soon would be when Micky could get to a hospital phone that worked. The two Sekirei Disciplinary Squad members would definitely be fully pissed from now understanding that he had snookered them away from their home base with an offer to chat by the park's waterfalls while he had made them look very bad here. Since it wouldn't take that long for them to leap this way, it really was time to move, but he took another minute to mentally check off the hit list he had made earlier.

All rooftop satellite reception and communication equipment on top of every MBI building totally flattened. Check. Electrical substation and, except for the hospital, exposed back up emergency generators and wiring completely destroyed. Check. Every building, external compound street level and underground garage entrances and exits blocked by huge blocks of ice. Check. Maglev train station and tracks packed solid with ice for two blocks in both directions. Check. All six of the street intersections leading to MBI packed with ice three stories high and half a block thick. Check. All visible MBI vehicles including Micky's personal limo fleet "falling giant ice berg" demolished and now ice encased. Check. Homemade stink and tear gas bombs dropped down every ventilation exhaust port on every non medical building with said ports subsequently and deeply plugged with ice. Check. Large clawed X on the street side of the front gates that had very thick blocks of ice inside and out. Check.

Let's see. Communication first, power cut second, then all buildings sealed, transportation destroyed, emergency responders greatly delayed, what few compound personnel still able to move around VERY unhappy and VERY hindered, and every building except the hospital stinking to high heaven. Yep. That ought to have Micky and his boys tearing their hair out for a few days. And a very pissed off Karasuba too. Logan contemplatively eyed the very top of MBI's main skyscraper and its huge clock where the main penthouse offices had to be, ergo Micky's office suite? Hmmm. It needed that symbolic final touch for total fen shui harm.

"Honey, would you make me a couple of hand sized ice balls?"

Two well aimed, fastball heaves later and the clock's entire plastic face was in falling shards. Unbidden, Akitsu added a massive block of ice on the sky deck in front of it. Until it melted, that was going to keep Micky reminded and pissed off about tonight's fun for a few days. Logan chuckled in amusement at the thought and also in pleasure at Akitsu's extended range that was well beyond what she had shown earlier. The gal could sure throw out the cold damage when she put her singular mind to it. That last pinpoint conjure had been over a distance four blocks long and a hundred plus stories high. Lets see, maybe 100 meters long by 330 meters or so high, then, ummm calculate the hypotenuse would be, uhhh, the square root of 100 squared plus 330 squared which would be, uhhh, roughly 345 to 350 meters? She could accurately conjure several tons of ice at that distance while still separately maintaining their mutual cold auras to defeat infrared detection? Oh man, was screwing with MBI in the future REALLY going to be fun!

"Allrighty then, you did GREAT Aki-chan! I'm proud of you!" Logan chuckled in pleasure at his Sekirei initiating that last little crowning touch of needless mayhem at such a range. She blinked at him and then smiled slightly in return while once again tenderly stroking his right cheek with the fingers of her left hand. There was no doubt she was thinking about skipping the big shopping trip for now, but he wanted to get it in before MBI's surveillance satellites came back online.

"Okay, well, this should keep MBI off or butts for awhile, so we'll take it easy for the next few days, let you heal, set up a couple more safe houses, stock 'em with groceries, maybe buy some cheap wheels, a few gifts for tomorrow night's visit to Maison Izumo, and get ready for MBI's big time hunt for us while we plan our next moves. Let's change clothes back at the apartment, and get all that shopping taken care of before we have to lay low for awhile. Good?"

"Good," Akitsu nodded as she turned her head from him to give MBI's tower complex and surrounding walled compound a very narrow eyed look of intense hatred. "MBI very bad. Very bad people."

"Yeah, and a little too long time complacent and over confident," Logan grunted as she squeezed his chest and jumped them up to a nearby skyscraper roof and continued back northbound to their apartment. "Dumb bastards relied too much on electronic defense and surveillance. Way too few boots walking around. Left their power and power lines exposed instead of underground. Dumb. Really dumb. Any really determined morons could have blown and shot their way into the place. On the other hand I think MBI must have their really sensitive Sekirei stuff in really deep and limited access bunkers under the compound. But you can bet they'll have perimeter lasers, infrared, audible alarms, mounted weaponry, armed guards, and the whole nine yards of tighter security up top here in a few days, or they really are a bunch of total idiots."

As Akitsu leaped them home, Logan took that time to debrief himself and marvel at how badly MBI's home base external security had been set up. What a bunch of rookie dopes! Their cameras were suddenly frosted in the one jogged back wall corner. They were then blinded to Logan and Akitsu's surprise and lightning fast slicing and ice attack on the power structure and knocking unconscious the few perimeter walking guards. The same flash attack on security's central control personnel by tapping everyone unconscious had been almost ridiculously too easy. Then he and Akitsu had raced around the complex dumping huge blocks of ice down onto their rooftop communications equipment and blocking every ground level door noted by their earlier reconnoitering. Then the real fun had begun. With the electrical power station and backup generators shut down, and the compound sealed off, the rest of Logan and Akitsu's first and very fast retaliatory/discouragement visit to MBI was as systematic as it was damned effective.

Of course the same sneaky maneuvering of Karasuba and quick hitting tactics on MBI's compound probably wouldn't work again, unless it maybe started off with a good old "fastball special" where he could, could. Now what in the hell was a "fastball special"? He should be able to remember that, shouldn't he? Dammit! Logan thumped his memory darkened and still aching head with his palm in exasperation. Heal already! Maybe he needed to take a couple more painkillers when they got home. After all, he needed to be more alert than MBI's security, especially when they visited Maison Izumo tomorrow night.

***scene break***

An elderly man dressed in a plain, worn, dark green janitor's coverall walked unhurriedly down a small back hall of the American Embassy in Tokyo and paused before a small locked door marked CUSTODIAN SUPPLIES. Anyone else casually opening the door would step into what appeared to be a small closet filled with the usual cleansers and janitorial equipment and no more. The old janitor placed his right palm flat against the left door edge above his left hand that gripped what appeared to be an old fashioned brass doorknob. His shifted his head to stare into the "O" of CUSTODIAN and turned the knob until it almost imperceptibly clicked once and immediately stopped, but he maintained sufficient twisting pressure to keep it precisely still.

He felt a small pinprick in the center of his left palm gripping the knob, but stood rigid for several seconds until retinal, right palm, right thumb, all right four fingers, blood type, and the subcutaneous security identification barcode under his right eye had been scanned and verified. A few seconds later, a small electric tingle on his left hand signaled for him to continue turning. The turned doorknob then clicked normally again to allow the door to swing inward. Once completely inside the small janitorial closet and the door shut behind him, and the closet's back wall slid aside to reveal a black tubular lift made of anodized aluminum. Stepping inside, the closet wall closed, and a second dark panel of hardened metal slid shut too. The man turned to face the closed black panel and spoke.

"Voice identification, Douglas Ulric McKenzie, Bravo, Bravo, Alpha, Sierra, Tango, Alpha, Romeo, Dog, Niner Zero Niner One."

"Confirmed, DUMB BASTARD 9091," came a flat metallic response from the lift's ceiling which made the old janitor roll his eyes in long suffering once more at some nameless, nerd security programmer's sense of system pricking humor. The pneumatic lift began a silent descent that lasted for thirty seconds or so, came to a cushioned stopped, and then surged slightly forward for another ninety seconds. Forward motion halted smoothly and after a short pause, the black panel opening slid back to reveal a small half moon room whose curved wall was completely covered with video panels showing data being received from various external sources. A younger man, also dressed in a janitorial coverall, sat in a wheeled and cushioned, high back office chair positioned at the center of the semicircular control console of the room's advanced electronics. He didn't look around as the elderly janitor approached and stood beside him.

"What you got, Moe?" The older man asked quietly with a slightly bored tone.

"Twenty two minutes ago visual cameras on Lucy caught MBI's entire Tokyo compound going completely dark except for the hospital. She kicked on her infrared and starlight backup cameras. Current view is on screen one. Replays of all three on screen two. It looks like MBI has suffered very damaging and almost simultaneous attacks on their compound's communication, power grid, and transportation equipment as well as perimeter access points and interior traffic network. It's a partially cloudy night, but from a shadow outline that was captured in very low light going past MBI's hospital, it possibly looks like one super strength, clawed, cold using, and possibly male alien being moving at super speed is the culprit. Damage is very extensive, power is still out, security almost totally handcuffed, all weapons and communications appear offline, and access blocked. In short, MBI is now laying there like a naked, cheap, and drunken whore who doesn't care who screws her except her crotch is being protected by giant blocks of ice."

The elderly janitor's eyes narrowed as he carefully scanned the current view of MBI's complex. It did look as if the place had been selectively and very effectively targeted by giant, smart ice bombs. He turned to impassively watch Lucy's three way camera data begin a simultaneous replay of what had been captured. And what was that? Lucy's starlight camera had also caught a faintly visible image of long gleaming metal claws easily swiping through a heavily armored personnel carrier's left side doors and ripping them to shreds in the process before the vehicle was flattened by a huge block of ice. One alien had done all that? Maybe even just a juvenile?

"What do you think, Chief?" Moe looked up at his superior with raised eyebrows when all the data replays were finished.

"Intruder didn't hit the hospital or the underground labs," McKenzie replied quietly while stroking his smooth shaved chin in thought. "So it's not another attempted alien infant snatch raid by any of our competitors, however the targets damaged are very intelligently selected and thoroughly hit. Yet the compound is still virtually sealed tight from anyone else trying to take advantage from the outside. Most likely an inside job then. I almost think one of Minaka's younger alien freaks got loose and just sent him a giant message of unhappiness. We've seen that super fast and strong clawed gal dressed like a mummy wannabe a lot, but we haven't seen an ice user before, let alone one with a combo of Ms. Mummy's other powers, and this one looks a lot stronger too, although, who knows what Minaka has had or still has hidden down in his labs."

"A new super fast ice user with claws and super human strength that can swipe through armor plated steel like warm butter?" Moe frowned as he shook his head in disbelief. "Man, whatever that monster is, we've only seen one triple threat alien before, and she was a freaky fast sword/sonic user. Lucy's infrared is as worthless as her regular visual, and the low light camera don't show much at all, just a few flickers here and there, but that one shadowy outline of this alien freak definitely looks like a male, and he's the first FOUR way talent we've ever seen! Even magnification didn't help much, but just look at the damage! And how fast it was done! And the range of that last ice cast straight up onto MBI's main tower! Could this be the alien flock's biggest and most powerful young rooster that has just escaped Minaka's labs with a giant hormonal grudge because all the females are being released out of his dick's reach?"

"Who knows? And only one low light image doesn't necessarily mean one attacker," McKenzie shrugged calmly, "and we really can't even tell if this was an interior or exterior attack. The only things we can be sure about are the damage done and not done by a new type of inhuman, bipedal, and clawed being that has a male outline and bulging loin profile. If we relay what Lucy has caught, then the pukes at PigPen will be able to enhance all the data and really study it a whole lot better than we can here, but then we risk exposing Snoopy's existence.

"On the other hand, any young alien that pissed off at MBI and that powerful could be pretty damn useful for all kinds of spook/warrior stuff once captured and made cooperative. Might even be the key to shaking MBI off Kamakura Island and us finally getting access to that alien ship and any remaining embryos as well as snagging a few of the grown aliens that have been roaming free around Tokyo lately. This could be the big break we've been waiting all these years to get. Or it could just be a minor alien juvenile snit or drug reaction that Minaka let get a little out of hand but still has well under control. The hospital and labs not getting whacked really bothers me."

"So what's your call, Chief?" Moe finally asked as McKenzie brooded over the current view of a totally ice stomped MBI.

"Activate Woodstock," McKenzie shrugged while sighing in resignation at having to make a possible career threatening decision, but his flat tone was precise and decisive, "and all his cameras now. Shut down Lucy immediately and get the dismantle and clean team to get her taken away before our competitors and MBI can triangulate her city location. Tell them to make damn sure her hidey hole gets douched out thoroughly too. Give them ten minutes head start, and then squish, encrypt, and squirt Lucy's MBI data up to Snoopy for relay to PigPen. A chance to snatch and get that four way alien monster on our team is worth way more than a replaceable Snoopy. Get on it. Call me again if Woodstock sees anything important."

"On it," Moe replied tersely as his fingers began flying around the command console's keyboards.

As McKenzie retreated back to the American Embassy, an ultra thin antennae on the roof of a fast food burger joint a block away gave a 3 millisecond data burst up to Snoopy, a small, stealth satellite in geosynchronous orbit monitoring Tokyo, Japan, and Kamakura Island. The transmission, masquerading as stellar background noise from a neutron star, was relayed through space to a commercial communications satellite and sent back down to American monitoring supercomputers inside a top secret Rocky Mountain base. The light speed decoded and expanded data squirt caused instant chaos consisting of a flurry of enhancement activity, secure conference calls, and planning for rapid asset deployment. Unknown to the secret base personnel, a very cleverly designed and secretly installed microchip by Chinese intelligence on the American com satellite had copied and piggybacked the data squirt onto marathon reruns of a very old comic TV show about the big bang theory.

What the Chinese didn't know didn't know was that McKenzie and Moe's ultra secret data squirt to Snoopy, snagged so elegantly by Beijing's microchip, was also being read by supercomputers in a covert underground complex near Vladivostok, as well as one, lone, teenage Filipino hacking genius in Cebu City that always sold his data theft results to a Hindi spook military group in Mumbai. Lucy's hacked data caused the exact same chaotic reactions in all three cities as it had in the American secret mountain base. It also bought the Filipino teen a used Mitsubishi sedan, a formal college education he only needed for the door opening diploma, his family a year's supply of rice, and a ten day, nine night love cruise to Bangkok after he had also sold the same data to various third world dictators and military juntas throughout Asia, Africa, and oil rich Middle East. In short, by the time McKenzie stepped out of the ultra super secret janitor supply closet in the American Embassy in Tokyo, Logan and Akitsu's handiwork caught by Lucy had already went global and began spreading like an incredibly virulent case of electronic gonorrhea.

***scene break***

Karasuba angrily looked up into the partially cloud covered sky above her, noting that the full moon was waning, before squeezing her eyes shut, gritting her teeth, and clenching her fists hard. The big, three streak, slashed "X" on the front gates was definitely Logan's calling card to loudly mock her as a total incompetent. Enraged to the point of near frothing anger, she repeatedly thumped both of her muscular thighs at the same time with her fists and took several deep calming breaths while doing so. She kept this up until she heard Haihane land on the skyscraper's rooftop behind her. The clawed Sekirei's hand held electric torch then caused weird moving shadows as she came to the roof edge to join her boss.

"Benitsubasa is still way up north in Sapporo, Boss, and of course her MBI phone isn't working. She must have checked into some hotel for the night by now, but it's probably still going to take a few hours to find her. Even then she won't be back until sometime late tomorrow morning before she can start helping to bust up those damn big blocks of ice. Minaka wants us on perimeter guard duty until security is restored and beefed up. What a total freaking mess," Haihane sighed wearily as she gazed at the amount of icy destruction around MBI's compound. Karasuba didn't bother to speak.

Little dark figures could now be seen jockeying a few scattered pieces of big construction equipment in the feeble lights made possible by three small wheeled generators loaned by the city's street department. Just getting in the front gates to begin had been a major four hour task in breaking several tons of ice into pieces small enough to lift and haul away. It would probably take a couple of days just to get the interior streets and doorways cleared. Hopefully by then all the buildings ventilation systems and interiors would have been fumigated and cleansed of their noxious and unbearable stink. That was also probably going to involve the removal and replacement of all furniture, carpeting, drapes, food, clothes, and whatever else had been contaminated. Repairing and replacing wires, vehicles, power, and communication equipment might take even longer. Meanwhile MBI was virtually blind, deaf, and wounded duck helpless. What if Logan and Akitsu, or whoever he was working for, decided to strike again?

"You and I will," Karasuba nodded slowly with no expression in her voice or face, "be on twelve hour shifts up here until Benny's done, and then we'll go to eight hour shifts apiece until Minaka turns us loose to hunt Logan-chan and Akitsu down. Then the real fun will begin."

"I can't wait to shred that mouthy clown," Haihane ground out while sniffing loudly then coughing hard. This was followed by her hacking up a large green glob of mucous and spitting it out over the roof edge. "Look out below! Damn! I think I caught a cold on that crowded train to Kokura yesterday to look for Logan. Everybody was wearing medical masks too. That should have been a clue, ya know? It was probably that little weenie shit that groped my ass from behind and sneezed on me before I knocked his teeth out and broke all his pervy little fingers. Can't fault the idiot's nerve though. Kinda reminded me of that dumb chump Logan."

"You badmouth Logan so much," Karasuba turned a speculative eye toward her younger cohort, "it's kinda suspicious of YOU wanting some future Ashikabi mating with him by protesting too much. I can see where you would want him unwrapping you some hot night though. You two have a lot in common, claw fighters, strong, blunt, crude, uncouth, ruthless, and fearless. You probably be like two butt sniffing Tasmanian devils ripping the town apart to get at each other."

"Oh right! Like I could ever beat YOUR time with YOUR Logan-chan?" Haihane snorted derisively. "Besides, you're the one he called and stood up tonight, not me."

"Heh," Karasuba chuckled to herself while suddenly and visibly relaxing. She turned to give Haihane a signature Cheshire cat grin. "That Logan-chan really is a big, tricky, and nervy bastard, isn't he? Maybe you're right, and I've finally found a man after my own heart! Killing him is probably going to be the most fun thing I'll ever do, ever, but I'll probably miss him afterward too. The way he's thoroughly pissed off Minaka is way too funny. Who else is going to give us this much fun again? Even killing Miya probably won't be as satisfying."

"That's a scary thought, and this scrapped Akitsu isn't shaping up to be a mild pushover either. I think they're all three going to require some real teamwork to take 'em down."

"Just remember to clean up first so Logan doesn't smell us coming a mile away."

"Yeah, whatever," Haihane shrugged in annoyance. "Hey. Tell me the truth. Just what's with the Logan-chan crap anyway? He's used you like a cheap slut, Boss! Twice now! You really going a little soft on him or what?"

"He's a certainly my kind of bad boy," Karasuba smiled tolerantly with a fleeting distant look in her eyes. "Maybe if we'd met years ago... but no, heh, not now. Maybe you're being just a little too touchy, Claws, because he's made you look like a fool as much or more than me all over the country and not just Tokyo? And Flatty-chan too?"

"Okay, you're right," Haihane shrugged in disgust. "He got us all, and Minaka badly too. Look at that down there! Can you believe he and that scrapped number did all that in what? Less than twenty minutes? I mean, it only took us five or so to jump to the waterfalls in Shiba Park after he called to meet us, and we were there maybe ten more waiting until the cops called us, then five back, right? That means he was watching us leave!"

"And he had planned every move they were going to make ahead of time," Karasuba nodded while looking around behind her. "Probably from a high vantage point like this one. Matter of fact, this would be the best place from how much you can see of MBI's entire compound. Look around."

Haihane turned to wave her light around the roof.

"Looks like you're right! Logan did sit up here and scope everything out from that pile of beer cans by the roof access door. Hey, the cocky little prick left us a message over there! Look at that!"

Karasuba frowned in irritation after walking over and staring at the crude words scratched into the door using almost childish straight lines to form the letters. Juvenile mocking of her? Her frown turned quizzical. What was this? She couldn't immediately feel whether it was meant for good or ill, nor even if it was it for her, or to whom it may concern. No, she decided, this had been meant for her, but she had no clue as to what it was saying, unless, well, it did kind of have a slight romantic feel to it and not threatening at all.

For some reason her earlier internal anger dissipated as she stared at the message and contemplated its meaning as if it was some deep, calming piece of abstract verbal art. Logan had already been proven good natured, funny, friendly, and crudely comfortable to be around when relaxed. Was this some kind of reference or friendly teasing joke about her being pimped around and/or passing out during their "date" night on the town? He was teasing her? Funny. Instead of being irritated, she found herself half wishing that he was. She looked up in puzzlement to stare at the heavens peeking here and there through the partially clouded sky above her. Could he actually be a little "interested" in her? After all, he had at first mistaken her for some girlfriend/lover/old flame he had known as Mariko hadn't he? So, just what had Logan really been thinking when he had left this graffiti type note for her that simply said, "Starry Starry Nights"?


	6. Chapter 6

**Starry Starry Nights**

**Chapter 6 – Sixth Night**

Logan had trouble, well, a problem, or more precisely, The Logan Plan had one, and something needed to be done about it very soon. He was dumb with money. Akitsu was even worse. Whether he instinctively knew it, if not intellectually, the proof was in front of him, and they now already had the same problem every small terrorist/infiltrator/attacking group had against a large entity with infinitely deep pockets. Lack of operating and living expense money. After once again carefully counting out the greatly reduced pile of their remaining cash, Logan, head now throbbing painfully again, glanced out of their Asakusa apartment's kitchenette window to see the afternoon sun was now casting much longer shadows onto the roofs of the adjacent buildings. The faint sounds of Akitsu pouring water over herself while taking a bath in the small comfort room next to the kitchenette came to his sensitive ears. That's right. It would soon be time to start heading for their little introductory, gift giving, and recruitment visit to Maison Izumo, a potential problem solver.

With any luck, Akitsu and he might even wrangle a little more operating capital to continue The Logan Plan, especially if he gained a wealthy ally like Miya Asama. They would really need more money if they started using, and also eating in, his newly leased but only poorly stocked safe houses. Man, his one Sekirei, as damn beautiful, sexy, and totally sweet and loving as a guy could ever want, ate a LOT of food while chugging beer with gusto. Since neither of them could barely cook simple food, the grocery/take out bill for just Akitsu was proving to be pretty daunting already, so how could he afford another ally in The Logan Plan unless Miya was good with stretching their food budget or at least had her own stuffed pocketbook?

Crap, he sucked with money! He had also paid too much for a small used straight truck, an old hog of a motorcycle, and parts along with minimal tools needed to work on them. Both elderly and mechanically wounded vehicles needed extensive repairs to be roadworthy, but he had felt it had been wiser to go through more untraceable cash transactions with smug individuals wanting to fleece a Yankee looking gaijin rather than any formal vehicle dealers needing to formally report the easily traced transactions for tax purposes. He was absolutely sure he could fix both vehicles himself, even though HOW he knew was still very iffy. His brain was still a throbbing mishmash pile of knowledge, darkened memories, and clouded reasoning that he had to really concentrate hard to overcome, which made his head hurt more. That pissed him off almost as much as his stupidly spending them into a state of pecuniary embarrassment. What? Where had that dumb phrase come from? It didn't matter, he still sucked with money.

Dammit! He could sure use Nightcrawler's brains and mechanical help right now! Nightcrawler? Who was? Logan clutched his head as a new sharp stab of agony went through it.

"Such viciousness as yours, Herr Logan, badly needs some tempering," an amiable yet gently chiding and familiar voice echoed strangely from somewhere deep in Logan's memory. "Open your heart, mein Kamerade. Would it hurt so much to see the world through different eyes?"

Who in the hell had said something like that to him? Was that Nightcrawler? A friend? When? Why? Was Herr Logan all that vicious, Kurt? The Elf? Yes? Maybe? Yeah, he probably was, maybe even more than what he had seen in Fake Face Karasuba's cold eyes. Kurt? Old friend? He couldn't remember! And old friends implied old enemies, enemies even more vicious than he, lurking somewhere in the cosmos, maybe here in Japan, searching for him, ready to attack, attack and destroy everyone Logan held dear! Just like the last time! He hated Japan! All nice smelling cherry blossoms, beautiful scenery, great culture, and the place his heart had been broken so badly by Itsu's murder! Akitsu! He couldn't let them kill or even hurt Akitsu! Not this time! Why, he'd, he'd rip new assholes in every...!

Get a grip, dummy, Logan rebuked himself as more head grabbing pain shot through his skull. Deep breaths, calm down! One freaking problem at a time, and right now Micky and his minions were the problem. Self induced panic over nameless and not even remembered enemies wasn't helping any, wasn't his way either. Let them come! He'd kill every one of them sonsofbitches! And made sure it hurt 'em! There, that was what that old Nightcrawler whose-its must have been talking about, and it almost felt comforting. Weird.

Damn! He hated trying to think, or plan, or remember anything, as well as not thinking at all! Even making love to Akitsu had its price in pounding headaches afterward, and a smaller beer stash since Aki-chan just loved to chug a cold can or two during her afterglows. THAT was killing their rapidly dwindling finances too since Akitsu had decided it was another primary mission in her life to keep his pipes well cleaned, not that he was complaining, he amended to himself hastily, but it sure was playing hell with their "on hand" painkiller and beer supplies. Wonder what it was with her and beer? Was it natural to her or maybe all Sekirei, or something to do with her forehead tattoo? Drinking didn't seem to affect her thinking or speech much, but then again, how could a guy tell? Certainly didn't affect her hot loving any. Damn!

At any rate, Logan shook himself from that line of thought or they'd never make their Izumo visit, he HAD to get more untraceable cash on the sneak from somewhere to keep up the pressure of The Logan's Plan's initial great start. And maybe even save some, he winced internally, because he'd never been all that good with money in the past to begin with, or had he? Not really, he realized with some certainty since he seemed to dimly remember a long history of failed legitimate investments in suddenly bad/crashing economies, being out maneuvered and ripped off by canny, get rich quick huckster types, money stolen or stupidly given away to too many gold digging females and deadbeat buddies, a penchant for bad luck at gambling, and/or just being forced to quickly flee some previous safe haven/operating base while leaving his cached cash/loot behind. He seemed to have had and still had a real knack for getting money, but it had always went right through his claws as fast as it came in, and now it still was.

Face it, Logan sighed while rubbing his aching temples, he was almost a pure action type, not a sharp bean counter, nor a particularly great strategy planner either. He'd never be as stingy with doling out their cash as an insurance company, nor as astute and cheeseparing in spending it, and that right there was his biggest problem. As things stood right now with their cash, they would pretty much be limited to holing up by day, working on their old and wounded wheels, and slinking around doing limited mayhem at night for the time being. That too had problems, now that he thought about it.

Aw hell, just admit it, Ol' Canucklehead. The Logan Plan had two pretty bad flaws other than being underfunded. First, how was he actually going to find a relatively few Sekirei doing any battles that he could stop in a city the size of Tokyo? It was a big damn place! Lots of buildings and lots and lots of square kilometers for places to fight. How was Akitsu and he going to know where to go? Wandering around looking for battling Sekirei like some crime fighting crusader and actually finding a few "to the death" alien tussles didn't look quite as easy as it had in old time comics he was pretty sure he had read. Second, pretty soon MBI security pukes would home in on Akitsu's cold casting range and establish a corrective perimeter around MBI's main compound that would need purchased equipment to dupe, circumvent, and/or penetrate; equipment he didn't have and now couldn't buy. Just personally slamming head on into MBI defenses per his usual tactics for a little more vandalism fun from now on would too dangerously expose a trailing Akitsu to random flanking and even cross fire, especially since she was already totally fixated on protecting him in front of her and not herself from the sides or behind. Unless of course, he could get a powerful enough ally, with cash and preferably able to cook, to protect their backs.

That was really what he needed right now, along with a good scheme or two to generate more ready cash. He needed a back protecting someone to manage the shrunken pocketbook and any future cash; a brainy type that had more skills for it than he and Akitsu. He also needed thinking help until he got his non aching brains and memories back. That fall out of the sky and the reason for it must have really hurt him a lot more than he had originally thought, but at least he was still bright enough to realize he might be in over his head here in Tokyo and short a "got your back" type teammate if he was going to keep Akitsu alive. However, the best solution, a tactics and strategic smart, experienced, totally committed, money talented, and co-fighting ally, was going to be pretty damn tricky to get while avoiding another lifetime Sekirei bonding complication. Hopefully, and he had high hopes actually, this soon to be met, MBI estranged, and wealthy real estate owner/widow Miya Asama would take the job; especially since she was supposed to be a great cook, experienced fighter/leader type, and potentially a more competent treasurer/operations planner. Then she could solve The Logan Plan's biggest problem, a too impulsively yen spending and too muddle headed Logan.

***scene break***

The brief, top secret message from his immediate superior in America was troubling to McKenzie in several ways. One, it ordered action that McKenzie wasn't too sure was going to be effective, let alone even possible. Two, it demanded more information about the attack on MBI's compound that McKenzie didn't have, yet. Three, it authorized a deal that McKenzie was pretty sure was impractical as hell, and four, it darkly implied McKenzie's ass and job AND pension was on the line if one, two, three didn't happen the way McKenzie's boss wanted. He sighed and wished he had a nice cold beer and some pretzels for a snack. Salt and alcohol always helped him think better, especially in anxious times. Damn it was tough to be a career spook, constantly steering this way and that to avoid making career threatening decisions, taking risks, and/or outright life ending trouble.

McKenzie reread the meat of the personally decoded message carefully.

"Attempt immediate contact with MBI attacker. Use all funds needed to obtain cooperation in new MBI attack for obtaining alien DNA/embryo/live adult. Also assess possibility of directing new and immediate capture and occupation of Kamakura Island. Snatch team en route. Invasion forces to follow soonest. Be aware competitors planning same ops. Per your decision to use squirt relay, Snoopy compromised, data badly leaked. Transmit critical updates soonest by Schroeder and future false leads through Snoopy. Offer MBI head our cooperation and assets for attacker termination in return for alien DNA/embryo/live adult. You are now assigned operational head of Tokyo Alien Cage Ops. Program is now our entire agency's top priority. Failure not an option as MBI now rapidly moving into new phase of exploitation plans and closing windows of our opportunity. Disruption of said plans and acquisition of alien assets imperative. Have all confidence in your handling of this matter."

McKenzie snorted in annoyance. That "all confidence" bullshit was just agency speak for his boss using McKenzie as the public sacrificial lamb to take full blame if everything went wrong, and/or a "wise choice" affirming his boss's astute wisdom in appointing the right man for the job if things went right, and/or a quietly disposable fall guy for everything in between. No doubt about it. His ass was square on the hot seat on this one. New team and competitors coming? Big deal. Small chance of success there just like the other times. Operation T.A.C.O. What a crock, and his whole career was going to wilt like a wet one when it failed. On the other hand, what the hell? Use all funds meant "spend cash like a politician trying to get re-elected". If he could locate the ballsy bastard that had slammed MBI and could offer the clawed asshole enough money, who knew? Maybe the freak could actually solve all of McKenzie's new troubles.

***scene break***

A troubled, beer drinking, Number 05 Mutsu, a tall male Sekirei whose features very much resembled Number 04 Karasuba, sat in front of the wall sized video screen in Hayato Mikogami's giant game room. Although news helicopters and planes had been rerouted away from all MBI complex overflights, his face was a study of contemplative concern and outright worry as he watched the results of a private detective's long range and live video camera panning MBI's Tokyo compound via a high powered telephoto lens. For several hours now, Mutsu had been watching the ongoing private vidcast taken through an office window of a building three blocks away from MBI but with a clear view of most of the main areas, especially the heliport and vehicle staging area. When the camera panned up to show Karasuba stoically standing guard atop the roof of a closer tall building, Mutsu sighed and switched off his recording equipment. There was no need to risk a confrontation with her to get closer views. He had seen enough anyway, and it all gave great cause for more thought.

"Well, what does it all mean, big fella?" Fifteen year old Mikogami, the so called Ashikabi of the South, called cheerfully from his seat at the controls of the latest and most expensive 3D gaming console available. "Is the game going to be even more exciting? Who whacked MBI and why?"

"Exciting, most probably," Mutsu responded thoughtfully after downing the last of his lightly chilled bottle of very expensive Nine Tail Fox beer and immediately reaching for another. "Who and why are both questions that need answers as soon as we can get them. I'm pretty sure the ice damage was done by a scrapped number Sekirei that was rumored to be too powerful to ever be let loose by Minaka and can't be bonded anyway. She's the only ice user I know about from the ship's embryos, but she has been kept separate from her twin and hidden by Minaka ever since she was a baby. At least until now apparently. The other damage and evident speed and ease of the raid is what I think we need to focus upon. There was no attempt on Minaka's life and no one seriously hurt, let alone killed. So the WHY of the raid is also very puzzling to me. The hospital and labs were off limits too. That just doesn't make any sense to me at all."

"A very powerful scrapped Sekirei? An ice using female?" Mikogami's eyes widened in juvenile desire. He immediately scrambled out of his console's seat to rush Mutsu's chair. "And she's been turned loose? Oh! We must have that one! Are there any pictures of her? Is she cute and pretty? Where can we find her? Let's get all our Sekirei out and start sweeping the city for her! Oh, I want her!"

"Wait, wait," Mutsu held up his hands while frowning. Why in the world had he, an astute and experienced disciple of Sun Tsu as well as a former fighter on the original Disciplinary Squad, reacted to this too excitable and hormonal youngster and not a female human with some brains? Or maybe even the obviously powerful male Ashikabi of the scrapped Sekirei? Staying alive and winning the Sekirei Plan would have been tough enough, but now his body had handicapped him in what was looking like a very dumb bonding into a weak team led by a juvenile Ashikabi? Still wishing he was on a much stronger unit with real fighting potential, one that could defeat Miya AND Karasuba, Mutsu tried to talk sense to Mikogami anyway.

"You're forgetting about the one who might have been with her. Our detective was able to bribe information from a couple of the city street department crewmen who first responded to the attack. They insisted that MBI's metal armored vehicles parked inside were first slashed open before they were flattened by ice, and that very heavy objects had been thrown around the compound as if they were child's toys. We can see the results of that now. Look at the heliport tower's broken windows with heavy chunks of metal thrown forcefully that high. That's not something a female element wielder would be doing.

"Lets think about this before we start running around trying to catch the scrapped number. She might be with some unknown and very powerful character, a male Ashikabi, and one who together with her could greatly damage our flock. We're going to need every one of our fighters to stand a chance in fighting and defeating Miya as well as Karasuba, let alone Higa Izumi's bonded Sekirei. There's other strong Ashikabi like Seo and Sanada to fight too, as well as a few nasty independents."

"You take the fun out of everything!" A pouting Mikogami began to complain but brightened quickly. "Hey! Maybe we could bribe her and her partner into being our allies for a while! We got a bank vault filled with money! Hey! Better yet! Maybe we could just buy HER since she's not really bonded! I'd rather capture though! That's a LOT more fun! C'mon, big fella! I'm bored! Let's at least go out and look around for them! Maybe we can find some more Sekirei that haven't been winged yet too!"

"Wait!" Mutsu rolled his eyes in greatly vexed exasperation and half shouted as he bounded out of his chair. He belatedly realized he was talking to a closing game room door, but he yelled the rest of his thought anyway. "Why would anyone with a very powerful Sekirei and enough balls to attack MBI head on, and figuratively punch Minaka in the nose like that, need YOU for an ally? We've got a problem here if you screw around and make them into OUR enemies too soon!"

Mutsu started after his too young Ashikabi while shaking his head in long suffering, but then he stopped short with a sudden and not so chivalrous thought. He downed the rest of his beer while considering it as if he was old Sun Tsu himself. When it came right down to basic goals in surviving this little Sekirei civil war, one paramount action while fighting was to keep Mikogami alive in order to stay alive himself. That didn't mean he had to be glued by the youngster's side, nor expose and risk their weaker Sekirei unduly, did it? What if there were other ways to boost his team's chances of winning? After all, the young idiot did have unlimited funding. Spending a LOT of cash as a strategy might lead to winning the Sekirei Plan by simply hiring a mercenary to fight Miya and Karasuba, and that hired help could also possibly solve even more than those two problems/concerns, at least for Number 05 Mutsu.

***scene break***

Benitsubasa was not happy. In the past forty eight hours she had been run absolutely ragged all over Tokyo and northern Japan by that sneaky bastard Logan, losing sleep, missing meals, not getting her hair and nails done properly, no long hot soaking baths that she loved, and being forced to wear the same clothes for MUCH too long. Currently, not only were her knuckles sore from breaking up big blocks of ice all over MBI's compound, a LOT of them, now she was being stuck with the tiresome task of interviewing what few moron MBI security eyewitnesses there were to Logan and Akitsu's recent ice and stink bombing attack. This was while Karasuba and Haihane lounged around on some damn skyscraper roof taking it easy at her expense! And her bedroom suite stank! Along with every stitch of clothing she had in her closets and dressers! As soon as her fists felt better, she was going to pulverize that Logan bastard, if she didn't bust that always smirking and teasing Haihane in the chops first. Being called Washboard and Flatty-chan all the time was really getting on Benitsubasa's already too thin nerves now also.

"All right," the pixie sized, pink haired, and red eyed Sekirei waved for another slightly bedraggled looking security guard to come forward. She was seated in a hard school chair at a plain folding classroom table just inside the massive open doors of MBI's maintenance garage. She had an electronic notepad plugged into a large, voice activated video screen that was also linked to security's mainframe computers. The only thing that was making this boring and spartan setup for interviewing duty half tolerable was the cooler case of Suntory Malt's Beer beside her and now down to its last two cans.

"Let's take a shortcut here," she announced wearily to the suddenly and nervous fidgeting officer after popping the top and taking a big swallow of her next to last beer. "Do you have anything to say other than you were hit in the head from behind and knocked out only to awaken later in a street blocked on both ends by two story high ice? Saw nothing, heard nothing except for a few loud thumps somewhere close, and know nothing except you were where you were assigned when bopped?"

"Uhhh, well, no, uhhh," the guard stammered and then tried to clear his throat. "You see Miss, I was assigned as door guard to the heliport tower, but I was on a smoke break out behind when all the lights went out and all that loud thumping started on top of all the buildings. I, uhhh, ran to the front door, but ummm, dropped my keys and sorta kicked them in all the excitement. I got down on my hands and knees looking for them in the dark when I saw these huge blocks of ice sprouting up in the interior street intersections and coming towards the airfield. Some folks running here and there in panic were just suddenly cut off and started screaming. I was trying to get inside the tower and call central or at least get my com radio, but I couldn't find my damn keys! Then I remembered my own video cellphone that I use to keep in touch with my teenage daughter, because uhhh, I'm divorced see?"

"Yeah, yeah, spare me the dumb details of your failed love life, you moron!" Benitsubasa snapped peevishly. "The attack man! Tell me what is important about the damn attack! Get to the point!"

"Yeah, sure, right," the guard's head began nodding vigorously. The Crimson Sekirei's way too short temper was legendary, as was her ability to kick ass so fast a fella never knew what mighty mite fist or foot had even hit him. "The thing is, while I was on my knees, I took out my phone when the heliport tarmac was sealed off with ice, as was this garage. I, uhhh, figured my tower was going to get hit so I got up and ran sideways towards a blank space along the perimeter wall. I kinda hunkered down, well almost flat on the ground really, so as not to be seen when all of a sudden a couple of truck engine blocks went flying through the Tower's big glass windows! Then sure enough a big damn block of ice encased the whole place!

"I heard later no one inside got hurt because they hid in the stair well when the attacks started. Next I hear all kinds of metal screeching and giant thumps as every vehicle we had parked all around here got creamed. I tried to dial central but no answer, so I thought, man, is my kid gonna wanna see this, right? So I started taking video with my phone kinda angled up to get what light was coming from the city streetlights outside, and uhhh, well I was kinda near the last helicopter that got hit before all of 'em was encased in ice too. I saw them, the attackers in tight black suits head to toe. I mean, one was a female with really big tits, and the guy was a little shorter but he was big, real big, and he had these long claws! They kissed. Then he said, "Okay, thump it, Kitty Cat." Big thud and a big hunk of ice landed right in front of me. I crawled back towards the tower along the wall and looked back, but by that time they were gone. So, uhhh, here's my kid's video phone with a plug in for download. It doesn't really show much in the bad lighting except the shadows of the two attackers kissing. She, my kid that is, uhhh, she thinks it's even kinda romantic."

"A video? You've had a VIDEO, you clumsy, cowering loser! And just now bring it out?" Benitsubasa leaped out of her chair to land with her sore fists clenched, left foot extended slightly forward, and in a perfectly balanced basic position to deal out some serious bone breaking Kung Fu.

"Puh, puh, puh, please!" The guard held up his crossed arms in front of his face and cringing body. One hand thrust his video phone out in appeasement while turning his head away and squeezing his eyes shut in anticipated pain. "Plug it in and watch it! It just didn't seem very important! And you only wanted the important!"

Barely curbing her instant anger, Benitsubasa snatched the phone out of the cowering idiot's hand and plugged it into her notepad. A sudden thought struck her.

"Control," she spoke towards her large screen. "A phone video is downloading. Are there any other MBI file videos of Logan and the scrapped Sekirei named Akitsu?"

"Affirmative," came a female's disembodied voice from her notepad's speaker. "Two. One from Karasuba's phone when she first met Logan, and then another taken by satellite of an unconscious Logan being bathed in a Shiba Park pond."

"Bathed?" Benitsubasa frowned in annoyance. No one had said anything about that video to her. "Append this last download to the other two and run all three on my screen here."

"Transmitting," the voice spoke after a short delay.

Benitsubasa forgot all about the still quaking security guard standing in front of her and her last unopened Suntory Malt's, especially when the eye catching part of Logan's tender bathing by Akitsu began. Then came the shadowy but outline identifiable pair kissing just as tenderly and sweetly after their rampage of destruction; a wanton rampage that had already struck Benitsubasa as pretty sexy. The size of Akitsu's breasts were a teeth grinding cause for extreme jealousy, but the naked muscular and obviously endowed size of Logan was just as much cause for swooning, long, hot bath fantasies. She had seen Minaka's future choices for an Ashikabi to wing the Disciplinary Squad, and she hadn't been too impressed, but THIS guy Logan, now he was a lethal, yet romantic, destructive action type that LOOKED like her kind of bonding candidate! She closed her eyes to envision how it would feel to have such a big, manly, powerful, dangerous, and muscular Ashikabi romantically reward her for showcasing her tremendous talents for death, disruption, and destruction for him; and afterward him tenderly kissing her, licking, panting, lusting, thrusting, and mmm…

She shook herself back to reality as the now whimpering guard misinterpreted her suddenly feral, closed eyed, snarling expression. Looking quickly around, Benitsubasa, in her highly agitated, fairly drunk, and out of patience state, came to a snap and possibly not too well thought out decision. Screw this duty, the bad smells, dirty laundry, and everything else pissing her off. She was going to take a hot bath, get her nails and hair done, get her clothes washed, drink a few more beers to keep her buzz glow going indefinitely while doing all that, and get ready to do a little hunting on her own.

Wait. Where to look for Logan? Hey! She had a REALLY smart friend and alcoholic former schoolmate in unbonded Number 22 Kochou. That dirty, scheming, and conniving Sekirei always KNEW how to find stuff, electronic and otherwise, even when drunk, and was just as smart and capable as Number 02 Matsu. One quick glance at these videos, along with a couple of cases of Suntory Malt's, might persuade her old, school drinking buddy to find AND get a great Ashikabi for both of them. Benitsubasa smiled to herself in anticipation. Screw MBI, Minaka, Karasuba, that dumb bitch Haihane, and all those weenie looking wimps Minaka wanted to wing her. She wasn't happy now, but she now had some GREAT ideas how to get herself sexually pulverized into a LOT happier state by a nicely hung and hot looking Logan.

***scene break***

Higa Izumi, head of a large pharmaceutical company in direct competition with MBI and also the totally amoral Ashikabi of the East, had a dead pan expression that belied his inner and angry turmoil. His sitting position in the high back executive chair behind his penthouse office desk remained motionless as the wall video screen disappeared back up into the ceiling. The slide show of long range color photography with telephoto close ups of MBI's recent damage had just finished. He turned his attention to the silent male and female standing in front of his oversized desk. He gave a one eyebrow raised, jaundiced look at his personal servant Kakizaki, a slim, dark haired, bespectacled young businessman. He then turned a similar if not a little distasteful look upon his most intelligent and data collecting Sekirei, Number 22 Kochou. She flinched slightly knowing full well that her Ashikabi actually detested his Sekirei and had very little tolerance for any failures from them, but she had calculated this risk in her present plans of actions.

"You're both telling me that we now have a loose yet scrapped, not able to be bonded, and ice elemental Sekirei as powerful as Karasuba and even that Asama bitch? She attacks MBI's entire complex and leaves it looking like THAT, and we knew nothing about her? Nor the reason why she hit Minaka so hard? And if she can slam MBI that hard, then what could she do to us? To our chances in winning the Sekirei Plan? THIS is unforgivable! You both are tasked to KNOW these things ahead of the game! And to deal with them! Not twenty hours after the fact!"

"We have obtained access to information about this ice user through our paid contacts in the police department and their smuggled underground reports detailing all Sekirei incidents," Kochou began somewhat nervously but immediately went into her usual monotone. "Through them I have learned that there is a very high probability that the scrapped Sekirei, her name is Akitsu, number unknown, has formed some kind of emotional bond with an unknown male of unusual strength named Logan. Police contact was first made four nights ago in Shiba Park where a police car and an MBI helicopter were attacked and badly damaged. There were several complaints of mayhem, street violence, damage, and extortion from clubs in Kabukichō the next night that also involved this pair, Number 04 Karasuba, and other fighting Sekirei. Those same police contacts informed us that they have been told to ignore any incidents involving a new Ashikabi named Logan, and for all matters of injury or damage to contact MBI's security. I believe with a high degree of certainty that this Logan and Akitsu have for reasons unknown become enraged at Minaka, and that was the cause of last night's attack. The likelihood of attacking our interests are therefore small as this Logan probably doesn't even know our team and assets even exist. Our Sekirei have had no contact with him or the scrapped Akitsu. Therefore, the possibilities of alliance and/or forced cooperation of the pair are still reachable as a goal."

"And why wasn't I informed of their existence four nights ago?" Higa half snarled as he leaned forward in his executive chair.

"Kakizaki was informed of that incident as well as last night's per your standing orders," Kochou shrugged in seeming indifference as she neatly palmed all the blame off her and onto her hated boss Kakizaki. "He relays all gathered data deemed pertinent to you. I sent these photos to him earlier and naturally assumed he had already brought this matter to your attention when I arranged this slide show for our usual afternoon briefing."

Survival odds in the Sekirei Plan for the brain type Kochou, as remote as it had seemed in the beginning and still currently was, had just gotten exponentially better thanks to Benitsubasa's drunken phone call. Today's little dance of office politics was actually just for show in Kochou's seizing of a most fortuitous moment in machinating her way to insure much better odds in living, so who could blame a gal for fighting with her best weapons? Which until now had also included corporate backstabbing as well as a very wary attitude around an overlord Ashikabi who hated all Sekirei, and his contemptible lackey Kakizaki. Both had forcefully winged and blackmailed as many bonded and unbonded Sekirei as they could in Higa's quest to destroy MBI.

Fortunately, Kakizaki wasn't as bright as he thought he was in her case, fooled by her bribing a nameless bum on the street to be her Ashikabi while she used a child's toy of tattoo transfers to imitate a Sekirei bonding crest high on her back. The phony bum Ashikabi had then gratefully allowed himself to be bribed again and faded into Tokyo's underworld while Kochou had settled into her plush new digs complete with state of the art electronics one floor below Higa's penthouse office/apartment. She had hated every minute of it. On the other hand, to date her phony alliance with Higa had been very lucrative, given her access to every top level communication device and data on Earth even more than her rival Number 02 Matsu, and until now, been just what she had needed to stay protected and alive in the Sekirei Plan. Tonight though, her odds were going to get much, much better.

"This second event," Kakizaki began smoothly while removing and wiping his glasses, and knowing full well he had been neatly dumped onto Higa's hot seat of blame, "is a marked increase in this new Sekirei/Ashikabi pair's first violence towards MBI and its authority. The direct compound attacks made by the pair indicate that they are currently too unstable for us to utilize effectively. However, I am monitoring their activity and trying to locate them for stabilizing their situation and gaining their talents on our behalf if they can be efficaciously controlled. It will require gaining enough persuasive leverage on the Sekirei as usual, bribery, threats, blackmail, kidnapping/holding the Ashikabi, or even a simple promise of aiding their escape from Tokyo that has worked on a few other pairs. I see no need for histrionics or undue concern at this point. In the meantime, whatever they do to MBI, the Disciplinary Squad, and even other enemy players in the Sekirei Plan are simply a free bonus to us while posing no risks to our interests and our own Sekirei assets."

"Histrionics?" Higa's facial expression went from dispassionate to dead eyed cold.

"You pay me well to implement your policies," Kakizaki shrugged in return. "To this point our methods have worked well. I see no real reason for this extended meeting other than a possible need to discipline a slightly hysterical Number 22 for breaching our established chain of command and bypassing my authority in bringing you these pictures. If and when I can bring you concrete recruitment results and/or actual threats to our plans that I deem noteworthy to you, then you will be informed immediately."

Higa sat unmoved while contemplating the nail manicure of his fingers.

"Keep me more closely informed of all activities of this scrapped Sekirei on a regular daily basis, more if events move quickly, including all photo and videos of her and her Ashikabi. Make her immediate cooperation with my goals a top priority," Higa finally responded in dismissal. He waved his manicured hands at both of them to go sort out their mutual enmity between them while totally masking his own troubled premonitions of danger in dealing with this Logan and Akitsu.

"I will meet with you in one hour in my office to better coordinate our plans for obtaining the ice user," Kakizaki advised Kochou in a completely bland tone of voice, but the implied threat for further disobedience and backstabbing was there nevertheless. She simply bowed her head silently in seeming absolute obedience. Kakizaki, as well as Higa, then totally missed the fleeting look of determination in Number 22 Kochou's eyes that she quickly masked before turning for the elevator and her apartment below. Since she had zero loyalty, absolutely no more patience for Kakizaki's smarmy and hostile style of leadership, and less confidence in Higa's eventual success in the Sekirei Plan, after Kakizaki's useless meeting she was going to be making her own moves.

Opening her apartment door and then locking it securely behind her, Kochou chugged two much needed bottles of imported BrewDog Sink the Bismarck beer before spending the next forty minutes readying a clean break with Izumi's computers which she would activate later at a remote site. She went through a mental check list for her evening meeting with Benitsubasa in the form of two large black canvas duffel bags; one stuffed with large denominations of yen, the other with her clothes and critical computer program/data storage transfer tools. She paused to look at herself in the mirror. Per Benitsubasa's drunken warning, she had bathed, put on clean panties, and donned her favorite long purple dress. She adjusted her half glasses to stare at her large gray eyes and short "princess cut" gray hair. Other than the mole in the middle of her forehead and the differences in their Sekirei powers, she was the exact physical, mental, and emotionally completing mirror of her long separated but now free twin sister, Akitsu. The cold half emptiness of heart and soul that had driven Akitsu/Kochou to near alcoholic insanity from their enforced long separation was going to be filled and made whole tonight, as well as finding/mating with her/their Ashikabi, or Kochou would die in the attempt.

Thanks to Benitsubasa's timely videos and the police reports from their night on the town with a lot of Izumo Inn connections, finally finding and reuniting with her mirror twin sister after so many empty years without her was now readily feasible and emotionally imperative for both of them. The fact that Akitsu had already gained such a powerful Ashikabi for them both was also incredibly fortuitous and not a moment too soon for all of them. Aside from healing the crippling emotional damage that had been done to both of them by MBI intentionally trying to cut their natural strong twin bonds, now Akitsu/Kochou definitely needed a protecting Sekirei of Benitsubasa's ranged and close combat power, and the hard drinking Logan definitely needed Akitsu/Kochou's brains for future planning, as well as their millions in embezzled cash and talents for making a LOT more. All she had to do was get the fake Sekirei tattoo on her back replaced with a real one by Logan, make that sot Benitsubasa a happy former virgin, and start solving all their problems, one case of beer for Benitsubasa, Akitsu/Kochou, and Logan at a time.

***scene break***

"Troubles, Bubbles?" Kazehana's half mocking, half amused voice startled Uzume out of her reverie that had left her gazing sightlessly out of a second story hall window of Izumo Inn.

"NO!' Uzume whirled in instant and vehement denial, her long, waist length, chestnut hair and side pony tail angrily swirling about her torso. "I'm fine! Just tired of listening to all that constant talk and speculation in Matsu's room about that insulting jerk Logan by Matsu, Homura, and now Miya! Is he crazy? Is he not? What's he here for? Who sent him? Logan this! Logan that! I'm sick of it!"

"So you just come out here to stare at the front gate and street where he's going to appear soon?" Kazehana leaned lazily back into the hall wall with one high heeled black shoe propped against it up beside her opposite knee. This action made her short purple miniskirt ride up her bare thighs. Her shoulder blades, now flattened against the wall, made her more than generous bosom almost lewdly thrust outward as she leaned her head back with both palms braced behind her back. She too made a sightless stare, but it was up at the hall's decorative wood ceiling.

"Let him come!" Uzume half snapped in return. "You guys can talk to him and the scrapped number. Probe for information. Make your big plans. Plot your big moves. I just live here, and not on any team, nor have I been. You guys don't need me."

"Who says I'm on any team now?" Kazehana chuckled lightly at that absurdity. "I'm the Public Obscenity, remember? I'm not a part of any plots or plans either, but I have been thinking about making a big move for Logan as my Ashikabi, just like you are."

"Oh, dream on," Uzume shook her head in irritation, "and mind your own business. I'm just thinking about getting a job somewhere so I can pay my rent to Miya."

"Liar," Kazehana chuckled softly again. It was a throaty, husky sound of amused and knowing accusal. "The other night in front of Homura's club, I saw you grinding up against Lo-chan's back much longer than was needed, your face beet red, and deep breathing in his man smell as you kept it up. Then you were standing all flushed, hot and bothered out in the street before you ran away. You didn't fool me. You're body reacted to him big time. And then you sat there the night we saw the satellite video, watching Aki-chan bathe him and just as interested as the rest of us. Pretending anger and then flouncing out in denial. Now you can't sleep at night. Tossing and turning, hot all over, rubbing yourself, drinking too much to calm down, trying to get some sleep, but can't. Not hungry. Daydreaming out a window. Thinking about him. Wanting him. Nipples aching, loins hot, and NEEDING him."

"Oh, just dry up, Onee-chan!" Uzume hissed angrily with her eyes squeezed shut. She turned away so as not to let Kazehana witness Uzume's hands press against the twin hardening points of her breasts. "What do YOU know about anything! Or me!"

"Because," Kazehana sighed heavily while now gazing sightlessly out of the window beside the totally flustered Uzume, "I have the same problems?"

***scene break* **

The stocky, hard muscled, and physically powerful looking rickshaw-puller effortlessly forced his large two wheeled cart down one side of the quiet urban street now darkening from the twilight's shadows. The runner was clad in a short, black, loosely belted, and semi chest exposing, three quarter sleeved, male style kimono. The bottom of the kimono ended midway on a pair of tight, black spandex shorts that showcased his very thick yet athletic thighs and other assets. His head was completely covered and shaded by a large brimmed, upside down, bowl shaped straw hat. It was held firmly in place by a thick black string tied in a crossed fashion around his chin and under his jaw that almost resembled a donkey's harness. He was also wearing a pair of black jika-tabi; traditional rickshaw-puller's rubber soled, two toed, calf covering footwear. He and his heavy, wood wheeled, unadorned, unpainted but sturdy looking rickshaw, rented from an antique dealer for a phony photo shoot, looked as if both belonged and had just jogged out of a casual street scene from more than a century past.

The rickshaw's beautiful woman passenger was also traditionally clad in a white, long sleeved, silk kimono, light blue obi or wide cloth belt, and white two toed socks with wooden sandals. To completely cover her face, she wore an archaic large straw hat as well and closely held up a red dragon decorated, many ribbed, white silk parasol. The hat was little more than two large half moon straw fans joined in a sharp angle together at their base, set upon her head to imitate an acutely slanted roof with a steep forward tilt, and string tied in similar fashion as the bowl shaped headgear worn by the peasant pulling her along. She too resembled a living picture of some antiquated street life; perhaps a royal princess returning home at the end of an unhurried day spent browsing local shops. A large cardboard box beside her on the rickshaw's seat and his steady running pace were the only things that kept the idyllic looking pair from Japan's history in being a constant, tourist stopping camera shoot.

Barely breathing more than normal and only sweating lightly, Logan stopped the ancient wooden rickshaw in front of Maison Izumo's front gate, and offered Akitsu a gentlemanly hand to step down from her seat in the vehicle. He picked up the big box on the rickshaw's seat and turned to get his first disappointed look at Maison Izumo. The inn was not much more than an old, traditional yet elongated, wood and white panel, two story Japanese house with a moderately slanted gray tile roof and encompassing verandas a step above ground level. It certainly didn't look like any kind of rich real estate, but it was well kept, and it had large, elegantly trimmed spruce trees in front and several blooming, sweetly scented cherry, lilac, and magnolia trees on both sides and in the back. The manicured and neatly landscaped lawn inside the surrounding high wooden fence was a virtual post card picture of quaint Japanese suburban life. Still, it was a high hope bubble bursting scene for a guy wanting to find a wealthy fighting ally.

Logan's perfunctory once over gaze of the Inn's low monetary worth then came to rest on the wide front porch. A young but highly curvaceous and physically fit female was fidgeting to and fro in front of the Inn's main entrance. Dressed in low cut, tight, hip riding, bun rounded Capri jeans, simple sock-less sandals, and a pink and purple 3/4 sleeved cotton pullover shirt with a gold star in the center of her very nicely bulging chest, she whirled back and forth after only taking a step or two while obviously talking to herself. Her waist long and thick chestnut colored hair was waving violently about as if she was the feature model in some hair care and/or buns of steel commercial. She also had a very familiar musky and sexy odor, the scent of freshly blooming waterlilies. In fact, Logan decided, the young female was in heat. He briefly wondered who the lucky guy inside the Inn she was worked up over could be before shrugging and opening the Inn's front gate for Akitsu. The agitated gal's love life wasn't any of his business.

Wait. Take away the stinking garbage smell the other night, slap a brief, slinky, white silk outfit on her, and she could be Homura's would be rescuer? Maybe? Ummm, Uzume was it? Well now, this was a hell of a good deal! Once she was bonded with whoever had gotten her so worked up, maybe the pair of them could be persuaded to join The Logan Plan too! She wasn't much of a fight threat, but she could keep a horny enemy distracted and busy dodging all about until Logan could snag 'em and rip their guts out. Or, Logan winced at his own visual image, just stab them to death humanely to keep the too critical Kurt the Unknown Spook in his head happier about trying to curb any too vicious killing. What the hell? Dead, inhumane or otherwise, was still dead, wasn't it Kurt? Couldn't a fella enjoy his work a little even if it added way too much soul guilt afterward? Shoot, it might even impress the ladies like the one that stunk of garbage and waterlilies the other night.

Uzume stood still on the porch and bit her lower lip hard as Logan approached carrying a big box with Akitsu warily mincing along beside him in small steps on the Inn's wide, flat gray stone, main walkway. Uzume's fists clenched in angry resolve. She had a sweet, innocent, and very caring young female in a hospital that very definitely caught her Sekirei interest. Uzume did NOT want this rude, crude, and insensitive GUY for her Ashikabi, no matter how much the asshole might appeal to the baser side of her Sekirei mating instincts. She was absolutely uncaring that his warm and friendly blue eyes were smiling up into hers while standing a step above him on the Inn's porch, nor that the close, slightly sweaty, salty, and worn leather scent of him was making her feel slightly flushed all over, more unsettled, and even a little breathless. And as soon as she gave him a piece of her mind blasting his obtuse and insulting male behavior, she was leaving to visit her friend at the hospital even if it meant missing dinner! So there!

"Ah, Uzume-san? Right?" Logan bowed his head politely, put his big box of gifts down on the porch beside Uzume, and reached into it for a small, rectangular, white ribbon wrapped package. He held it out to her. "We meet again under better circumstances, eh kid? Hey, uhhh, I'm sorry I was so impolite to you that first time, but, uhhh, it had been a long and very irritating night. I hope you'll forgive me. Got a little gift for ya to ask forgiveness."

"I, I, ummm, I, well," Uzume stammered with her recent resolve's wind suddenly taken out of her self righteous sails. Kid? Sorry? Forgive? KID? As her automatically reaching fingers touched the back of his outstretched hand in taking his gift, she snatched them and the decorative box away, recoiling backwards with a stunned half scowl as if she had just received a sharp jolt of electricity. Her sudden action and facial expression caused an instant reaction in Akitsu.

"Aki-chan!" Logan jerked his head around as he felt her cold aura dramatically and very dangerously increase. He turned halfway and smiled at her tenderly while putting a calming hand on her right forearm cocked in front of her for an instant death dealing chop. "This is Uzume-san, a friend. Everybody we meet will be FRIENDS here tonight, and you're supposed to stay very calm for me, remember? You MUST NOT hurt anyone here at Maison Izumo, and Uzume's not going to hurt me. She was just surprised to get a nice little gift is all."

"Only surprised? Friend? Not hurt Logan-chan?" Akitsu' intense gray eyes slid back and forth between Logan's deep blue and Uzume's luminous dark brown, narrowing slightly as Akitsu finally settled on the visibly shaken, long haired, flustered, and flushed female Sekirei on the porch before them. Friend? This Sekirei FELT hostile. This was not good. Must make sure. "You not hurt Logan-chan?"

"What?" Uzume frowned in semi confusion at Logan's benign expression while standing relaxed next to a much too tense, demanding, and obviously ready to do battle Akitsu. "No! I've got no interest in hurting anyone!"

"Promise?" Akitsu pressed with her left eye narrowed further in suspicion. Logan's strict rule against using her ability to defend him at this place was going to be very, very hard for her to obey, but she wanted very, very much to please him. MUST make sure though.

"Yes, I promise!" Uzume shrugged in slight pique about having to give a childlike affirmation of her peaceful intent. Damn! This wasn't going the way she had envisioned earlier when she had decided to wait outside and meet Logan first, tell him off, forcibly free herself from his disturbing influence, and just leave! Her whole body felt much too warm and getting warmer. Her knees were almost too weak to stand up, let alone walk. To cover that, she nervously examined Logan's gift and missed seeing Akitsu's expression relax into her usual calm, but wary mode. Uzume was now relegated into Akitsu's "neutral but needed to be kept an eye on just in case" category. No need to kill her and make Logan-chan unhappy, yet.

"It's a bottle of perfume," Logan nodded in pleased self congratulation at the perfection of his gift giving. He HAD remembered her natural scent correctly. "And it smells like blooming waterlilies. Just like you do now, and a little bit the other night although it was kinda masked by all that garbage stink."

"WHAT! Perfume?" Uzume gaped down at him in disbelieving amazement mixed with a very heavy dose of outright instant indignation. "You total JERK! You called me STINKY in front of a street crowd of people! And now you give me perfume? PERFUME? What ARE you? Some kind of total charm school reject?"

"Charm School? Me?" Logan flinched back from her outraged outburst in total wounded puzzlement. Him being considered as charm school material didn't even make sense. Did it? Had he ever? Dropout maybe? No! Was this gal nuts?

"It's just a gift, not a permanent indictment!" A now irritated Logan half bellowed defensively. "Truthfully, you DID stink then, didn't ya? And ain't I apologizing NOW for being maybe too, uhhh, blunt then? What are you all worked up about all of a sudden?"

"Because you're such a total old clod! You moron!"

"So I'm a clod! But Old? Moron? Okay! I made a bad first impression the other night, but I'm trying to be nice here! You smell just great to me now, but hell, maybe perfume would help you with the guy you like inside the Inn since he probably doesn't have my nose! Look, I got this because as good as you looked the other night, I couldn't think of a damn thing to buy that would make you look better! Besides, when did it become such a damn crime for a guy to give an expensive bottle of perfume to an incredibly beautiful young lady while saying sorry?"

"It's NOT a crime! It's, it's...YOU, you," Uzume, too heated and now unable to express herself verbally, stomped her foot hard in righteous anger mixed with totally embarrassed frustration at her body's Ashikabi reactive betrayal. She DID NOT want HIM for her ASHIKABI! What was he talking about a guy inside? The dolt couldn't even see HE was the one upsetting her? The NERVE! Uzume then began a very hard internal struggle whether to bitch slap the shit out of Logan, jump into his arms and simply ravage his lips for calling her incredibly beautiful, or just ignominiously flee since Akitsu most definitely would forcibly repel any frontal assault on her Ashikabi, friendly or hostile. Fortunately, Uzume was saved from any of her three self embarrassing choices by Kazehana and Homura hearing loud voices on the Inn's porch and coming out to investigate.

"Ogle-chan! We meet again! Ummm! Big guns! Nice outfit! I likee!" Kazehana fairly purred in greeting as she stepped out onto the porch and gave a knowing sideways look at Uzume, now visibly trembling to keep control. This was made somewhat easier as Logan abruptly turned away to reach into his box for a smaller, sectioned, and padded container with no top that had four bottles of expensive sake.

"Whoa! Looking good too, Kaze-chan!" Logan grinned in open, mutual, and shameless ogling appreciation. This gal tripped every lusting trigger a guy had, and then a few more he didn't even know about. Damn! He handed his gift to a now wide eyed and openly flushed in appreciation Kazehana who was having a hard time lifting her eyes away from his tight black shorts. "And here's some sake to replace what I drank of yours the other night. Hey! You didn't get a chance to really meet and greet each other before! This is my Aki-chan! Akitsu, this is our friend Kazehana!"

"Friend?" Akitsu frowned slightly in confusion. Kazehana was acting more like a non bonded Sekirei that was now in rapidly escalating bonding heat. Akitsu with slightly narrowed eyes, examined Kazehana very closely. Yes. This was the same unconscious Sekirei that Logan-chan had helped put into a colored car with a lighted sign on top the other morning. Now this purple dress female was awake and had a very powerful elemental aura around her. She would be good help in protecting Logan-chan if he chose to bond with her. This was very good.

"Friend," Akitsu nodded firmly once in approval at Kazehana as both Sekirei females locked eyes, and, although it went right over Logan's wide brimmed bowl of a straw hat like the missed punchline of a subtle joke, they immediately understood each other as to just what "friend" really meant. It meant bonded Sekirei allies totally committed to ALWAYS protecting their Ashikabi as soon as Logan wanted to formally bond with Kazehana. The Wind Sekirei was good.

"Friend," Kazehana smiled smugly in return. The first huge and to date worrisome hurdle had been cleared. Now all she had to do was make Lo-chan want to wing her, and as soon and as romantically as possible. Then the serious lovemaking would start. Mmmm! She lowered her hot eyes to look into Logan's and give him the full female come on, but he had turned to greet Homura in total unawareness of the moment? What? Was this just a case of short attention span, gentlemanly politeness, or only tepid friendly interest in her as a female? She frowned slightly in consternation and uncertainty. She had traveled the world extensively in the past years and met too many males to remember, but none save one had ever turned away from her this quickly. She had reacted to that ASS Minaka who had totally rejected her, but not nearly as deeply as she was reacting with Logan. Maybe the timing was just wrong, and she needed to wait? Her first attempt hadn't went as planned at all. Damn! There wasn't enough sake in the world to dull the pain of another rejection!

"Hey, Bub, got a little something for you too," Logan gave a friendly two finger to his hat brim salute of acknowledgment to the fire user standing a wary two paces behind and to one side of a suddenly lower lip chewing and apprehensive of being summarily rejected again Kazehana.

Homura stared uncertainly at the brown leather banded wristwatch Logan was offering as a gift. A watch? An old style watch with a BROWN band that was so last century? One that would instantly melt and fall off the first time his/her fire powers were cast? Besides, didn't everyone just use their video phones? He/she blinked in hesitation trying to think of something to say that wouldn't readily offend an already known to be too touchy and outright spastic guy that Uzume had just pissed off.

"It's fireproof! And it has a compass!" Logan beamed at what he thought was Homura's overwhelmed expression.

"Uh, uhhh," Homura swallowed and then relied on a time honored male familiarity word that could mean anything from gratitude, accusation, sympathy, approval, disapproval, disgust, disbelief, disappointment, shock, awe, commiseration, happiness, unhappiness, pleasure, pain, and a veritable dictionary of other meanings that included total neutrality, rejection and/or hot desire towards any subject, object, or life form, usually female.

"Dude."

"I knew you'd like it!" Logan chuckled knowingly. "Nothing like a good timepiece and a compass. There's even two metal toothpicks hidden on both sides of the face in the brown leather band too!"

Homura bowed in silent politeness while trying to decide if he/she should actually put the stupid thing on just for the sake of appearing calm and grateful. Metal toothpicks? Had he forgot to brush his teeth after lunch? Was something incisor stuck that Logan could see? The sound of bare running feet pounding down the Inn's stairs and the front door being flung open behind Homura made he/she turn to look at a highly disheveled Matsu while superstitiously slipping the archaic timepiece into the pocket of his black slacks hidden from Logan's view. Her glasses fogged, her wet, long red hair loosely bound up on top of her head in a soggy towel, and with her rather lewdly split to the thigh and cleavage exposing white cotton dress still damp in spots, Matsu skidded to a barefoot stop at the porch's edge.

"Logan?" Matsu puffed out as a statement more than a question, her large and rounded bosom bouncing as she panted heavily from her unusual burst of physical effort. She whipped off her steamed glasses and leaned forward to let her auburn colored eyes peer down into his and then quickly drift over his body, lingering on his loins, and then back to his face.

"Wow! It IS you!" Matsu announced in breathless disbelief and then stood staring at him in open mouthed and blinking wonder. He was here! And smelled and looked even better and sexier than she had even dreamed! There were so many questions she wanted to ask! So many details about him, his life, his purpose for being in Japan, his attack on MBI last night, his reasons for it, his true intentions concerning the Sekirei Plan, Sekirei in general, and of course the possible taking of her virginity as soon as possible! Why was he with the scrapped number? Where to start? How? Mustn't go too fast and irritate or antagonize! Damn! She looked like a total wreck! Why hadn't anyone told her he had come early for dinner? She had waited too long to take her bath! He must think she was a total ditz! Oh wow! Did he ever look and smell sexy! Just like she had thought! Better! She leaned forward to take a deeper and appreciative sniff.

"Hello! Yep! I'm Logan, at least, I am for now. You must be Matsu-san, right? Glasses, and I see red hair coming out of your towel like Homura described. Well, here's a little something for you for giving me Karasuba's phone number. And this is my Aki-chan! Kitty Cat, this is our friend Matsu Number, what, 02?"

"Y, y, y, yes," Matsu stammered as Logan handed her a pair of beautiful, clear forest green, teardrop shaped earrings with gold lobe clamps. He then dangled a matching necklace before her which she took jerkily like a badly programmed little robot and held up to examine. She had never worn jewelry before! Nor had anyone, let alone a guy she craved for an Ashikabi, ever given her any! Especially such old fashioned and out of date looking stuff! What should she do? She could refuse them, right? She turned to ask a much more world wise Kazehana for help, but winced slightly at the Wind Sekirei's returning and unmistakeably jealous frown. Homura simply shrugged while surreptitiously showing her a similarly unneeded watch out of his pocket. Uzume looked like she was in some kind of panting shell shock and was no help either.

"The color is forest green, kinda like a pine tree, ya know?" Logan nodded in satisfaction at what he assumed was her emotionally overwhelmed and speechless reaction at his gift. "Get it? Pine? And it really sets off your red eyes and hair too. Man, you'd really look babelicious in a tight green dress trimmed in gold!"

Matsu did quick double takes between the pretty green jewelry and Logan's smiling eyes, the action loosening the towel wrapping her wet hair. Babelicious? Western slang? Was that good? She didn't know! For all her brains, she simply had no idea how to respond, and it flustered her speechless. To stall for time she quickly polished her glasses on one drooping sleeve and put them on to look at her gift more closely. Neither Logan nor Matsu had noticed Akitsu's silence when introducing her, nor her growing agitation as she closely examined Matsu's regular and very beautiful, heart shaped facial features. When Matsu's wet towel fell and her thick red hair cascaded unbound almost down to her thighs, Akitsu's agitation increased. Then when Matsu put on her glasses again, Akitsu's eyes widened in belated recognition.

"Logan-chan, get back!" Akitsu hissed urgently in his right ear while clutching at his shoulders with both of her hands and trying to drag him backwards. "This, this Sekirei! Seen her! Not friendly! NOT friendly! Help take sister!"

"Oh! No! I mean, yes I am! Very friendly!" Matsu shrank back with a nonplussed and slightly wounded frown as this unfair accusation loosened her tongue. She had never met the scrapped number before, had she? Sister? Who? What had Matsu ever done to alarm her? Better get Matsu's main intent for her outcome desires for tonight's dinner out there right now! "And, and, Matsu wants to be MUCH friendlier!"

"Aki-chan! Cool it, will ya, honey?" Logan muttered back at her out of the side of his mouth when he felt her cold aura strengthen again. "Everybody here is a FRIEND, remember?"

"Welcome to Izumo Inn. I am Miya Asama," A slightly smiling, young, slender, but moderately shapely woman gently but firmly pulled the confused but obviously threatened Matsu behind her. She gave Logan a fast once over head to toe, took a semi deep breath, and then suddenly clamped her jaws together while her whole body stiffened.

Logan noticed the newcomer to the porch, the not so wealthy looking owner of the very disappointing Inn, was wearing the traditional, plain, and very inexpensive garb of a part time shrine priestess or possible female shaman consisting of a long purple skirt, a white blouse/jacket with extra wide and wrist length sleeves, a sash-like purple belt, and shod in white two toed socks and wooden sandals. Despite the hokey, antiquated, and very plebeian outfit, Miya was very pretty, Logan conceded. Her unusual floral lavender colored, waist-length, "white ribbon tied behind" hair was worn in a Japanese princess cut; an anachronistic hairstyle of straight, cheek length side-locks, a frontal fringe over her forehead, and the back tresses worn very long and straight. It matched her dumb looking old style clothes perfectly. What Logan noticed more was the long, sheathed, ever timely, and deadly katana held in her left hand.

"This ONE very bad people!" Akitsu hissed even louder. This time she would not be denied and quickly snagged Logan under his arms from behind to leap them both back a good ten paces, out of the immediate range of Miya's weapon. "BAD PLACE! TWO BAD PEOPLE!"

Miya stood impassively on her porch, now not smiling and narrowing her eyes at the large number of ice daggers forming around Akitsu. Miya didn't show it, but internally she was now totally and coldly enraged. Come to HER house and threaten harm? There were RULES! The suddenly tense and dangerous air in the Inn's yard and porch immediately put the cooling dampers on Uzume, Kazehana, and Matsu's varied emotional thoughts about Logan. Homura simply sighed and shook his head while edging back away from any possible collateral damage. This wasn't going well at all, and in all honesty, he/she had known it wouldn't.

For his part, Logan simply turned and frowned at Akitsu again.

"Honey, will you please just KNOCK IT OFF? I'm not going to get hurt here! Stop this!"

The ice daggers instantly disappeared, but Akitsu clung to Logan, shaking badly as her simple but intense emotions warred within her. He held her tightly for a few long moments, murmuring sounds mingled with repetitive, "It's okay." When her tremors subsided a little, he gently unwrapped her arms from around him, kissed her fingers, and held his hands up palm out for peace. Damn. His headache was getting worse, in spades.

"It's gonna be okay. Trust me. Stay right here, honey. I want to talk to this Miya, okay? We won't stay for dinner though, or even go inside, and you can tell me all about your problems with Miya and Matsu later. I will be right back after I apologize and finish giving our gifts. You must NOT attack anyone no matter what. Understand?"

"No, no attack?" Akitsu shivered violently again as she nodded, but her facial expression was very unhappy and her hand wringing body language was wracked with worry as Logan calmly walked back towards the Inn's porch, lightly massaging his temples.

"Ahhh, sorry about that," Logan began as he approached.

"I am pleased you have control over your scrapped Sekirei," Miya resumed her slight polite smile with her eyes half shut in cat fashion that totally belied her intense inner anger, but there was also a noticeable and almost bitchy hard edge to her voice. "Violence is NOT allowed at Izumo Inn. There are rules!"

"Really? And is that why you greet your dinner guests with a sword and a fake smile?" Logan said dryly, head cocked slightly sideways to look up past his hat brim and for the first time stare into Miya's stony, cold brown eyes, the eyes of a long time and hardened killer. He immediately saw his main reason for being here had been a giant waste of his time from the get go. "Aw hell, you're the same as Karasuba, maybe even worse, and another Fake Face at that."

"What?" Miya's right foot edged forward slightly for a quick Iaido strike as another wave of cold fury slammed through her.

Homura and Kazehana exchanged silent, deeply wincing glances. Matsu bit her left knuckle hard with an indrawn hiss. Biting her lip and also wincing at Logan's very coldly concise yet multiple total insults to Miya, Uzume stole a quick glance at the highly anxious Akitsu to gauge her combat response to Miya's movement, but the ice user was standing still and simply shaking in agonized concern and fear for her Ashikabi.

"You've got a lot of murder behind those cold killer eyes of yours, lady," Logan sighed in disappointment. No way was this sword user any kind of ally material even if she could cook. Old Spook Kurt wouldn't like her either. "I've seen the same look before many times. Ya know, those dead souls pile up quick and get mighty heavy and troublesome on your own at night too, but I can also see they probably don't for you. Karasuba's simply kill happy nuts. You, you don't even care and just make killing your first option. That's much worse."

"Quick to judge, aren't we?" Miya's lips were now a thin line of barely controlled fury. But she must follow her own rules!

"See what I see," Logan shrugged in unconcern. "But I guess only you know your own heart. It's none of my business now. And I don't control Akitsu. She simply trusts me. As for her being scrapped, what does that really mean? She's obviously not useless, nor broken as far as I'm concerned, not in need of control as you seem to think, nor a cold blooded killer like you either. In fact, left up to her, she'd never hurt anyone unless she thought I or she was in grave danger. I got a feeling she was just unluckily chosen for some very ham handed, not too bright, and eventually failed drug experimentation that included too much guesswork and not enough knowledge and skill."

"I think NOT," Miya returned tightly, "and I have a feeling that YOU are operating with too little information about her, Karasuba, me, my late husband, and our situation here in Japan, as well as our history!"

"As if that never happened before," Logan snorted in disgust while shaking his throbbing head. Damn! Things weren't going anywhere near what he had hoped for here. "Hey, uhhh, Akitsu's upset, you're too nutso, so uhhh, we're just going to go. Sorry about ruining your dinner plans."

"You weren't really coming here for dinner anyway," Miya said coldly while now trembling in containing herself. Nutso? "You just wanted me as an ally in your so called Logan Plan, whatever that is."

"Yeah, well, I HAD hoped for help in making a deal to let me and Aki-chan leave town peacefully, helping you win the Sekirei Plan up to and maybe even including ousting Micky and putting some one a little saner in charge, like you maybe. I just thought that last up on the way here, but like you say, I was operating under poor intel and a nicer description of you by Homura that just ain't true. You ain't, uhhh, well, maybe in the past I guess, but not now, you just ain't my or Kurt's kind of ally."

Miya's slender jaws clenched hard at his dismissive and condescending tone. She was NOT a cold blooded killer worse than Karasuba! Who was Kurt?

"I had no intention of making any decisions such as those tonight, nor any enemies that I don't already have! Perhaps," Miya's voice shook a little from her anger at his so flawed assessment of her, one which was tripping a little female bitchiness trigger that made her blurt, "I should have made that clear to Homura and spared you and your Sekirei the trouble of coming here tonight!"

"Yeah, well, the best laid plans and all that shit, I guess. Uhhh, look, I also came here to apologize to Uzume-san, and return favors done for me by Homura and Kazehana, and talk friendly like. So just relax your big intimidation and defensive bullshit. I'm not impressed, nor scared. And if Akitsu and I really had any intentions to attack, you'd all be dead by now, and your Inn flattened, crushed under a falling block of ice three stories high and half a block wide. I advise you not to piss Akitsu off with your unfriendly, Sekirei bigoted, and snotty ass attitude in the future too. You're just not my kind of people, and I'm not yours. Let's just leave it at that.

"Like I said, we're leaving, sorry we can't stay for your not so friendly dinner. That long wooden box over there in those noodle pots is yours anyway though. It's got a pair of wooden practice swords for if we'd ever have a friendly spar or two, but, uhhh, just forget that, and use 'em with some one else. Keep 'em as my thanks for the dinner invitation. Homura, will you see that your twin lightning user friends get those pots and the clothes and food inside them? Tell 'em I'm sorry I knocked their heads together."

"Uhhh, sure," Homura gulped in obvious discomfort for even being noticed.

"Wait." Miya commanded tersely as her hand tensed on her sword hilt. "Why are you here? Who sent you? What are you?"

"Now you want polite conversation, Fake Face?" Logan chuckled mirthlessly at her slight movement and dropped his hands straight down. "A little too late, ain't it? Where was all this patience earlier? Like I said, I'm just a guy who wants to leave Tokyo peacefully, and I thought you might help, but I was wrong. That's it. No big mystery, but if you jerk that damn sword out, I'll give your uptight sonic using ass a spanking that you've probably needed for a long damn time."

"LOGAN-CHAN!" Akitsu nearly screamed in rising panic. "WATCH OUT! HER ASHIKABI TIED AKITSU! SHE WATCHED! SO DID RED HAIR MATSU! HE CUT AKITSU! STUCK BIG NEEDLES! HURT AKITSU! HELP STEAL SISTER! BAD! MANY TIMES MAKE US SICK! HURT! TWO BAD PEOPLE HERE! WILL HURT LOGAN-CHAN TOO! PLEASE COME AWAY! LOVE LOGAN-CHAN!"

Akitsu became a white blur as she flung herself to cling to the front of Logan with her back turned to Miya. Akitsu's shoulders and back were hunched to take and thwart any lethal sword thrust meant for her Ashikabi. Logan instantly folded his arms up around her, clenched his crossed fists, and let his long gleaming blades spring forth protectively. He stood in his protective stance, ready to fling Akitsu aside and/or behind him, his own ice cold killer blue eyes almost daring Miya to attack.

Miya shrank slightly from the total viciousness displayed in his flat challenging stare at her. Fake Face? Spank? It was as if he had slapped her and greatly chilled her almost unreasoning and ongoing anger. Wait! What was going on here? Why had she went off so quick at meeting him? Her now calming brain finally came to grips with the fact that one, he was totally unafraid of her in any fashion, two, he was supremely confident in his ability to defend Akitsu, three, he was seeing right through her soul, four, he didn't like what he saw there at all, and liked it even less than Karasuba's, and five, that really hurt Miya down deep. Why had she come out and turned so instantly cold and hostile when she had really wanted him to like her? Fake Face? This first meeting wasn't going as she had wanted at all, and quite frankly it had been pretty much due to her too haughty, too sensitive, too curt, and too aggressive fault. Those traits were not the way to initially meet a male like Logan.

"Oh damn," Homura groaned softly as he took a quick step back to get out of blade range. "I HATE those long things!"

"BAD PEOPLE, LOGAN-CHAN!" Akitsu hysterically sobbed into his neck while clutching his kimono. It was kind of awkward due to the size of their big straw hats, but, going into total meltdown, she pressed in anyway. "WE GO PLEASE! NOW! BAD PEOPLE! BAD PLACE!"

"Yes, okay, I think you're right, honey. We'll go home now," Logan said soothingly while mentally kicking himself for putting her one track and brittle mind into too much conflict. He looked over her shoulder at the also too uncomfortable and agitated Homura. "Relax, Bub. I'm not killing anyone today. Kurt wouldn't like it. Nor am I giving any combat lessons unless pushed."

"Are you that skilled then?" Miya willed herself to relax and did so, albeit only slightly. She HAD to back off! What was WRONG with her? The suddenness of his blades appearing had been truly impressive, as was their readily apparent effectiveness as weapons on the hands of a quick, powerful, and skilled fighter. Logan certainly looked powerful, and from the speed of the damage done to MBI, he was quick, but how skilled was he? And why did he keep relentlessly insulting her? Was she THAT bad? Or was he?

"I can't remember specifics, Fake Face, but I'm sure I've fought too many like you, even much worse, and I'm still here. So you and Micky were and still are in bed with each other, eh? And stole her sister? Interesting," Logan said softly as he let his fists relax and, although hampered by the clinging and shaking Akitsu, began to turn away. "I'll have to give all this Sekirei Plan stuff another think. And if Akitsu is scrap, then what are we? And your Fake Face twin Karasuba?"

"I'm NOT like Karasuba! NOT a FAKE FACE! Nor in bed with Minaka!" Miya almost snarled at his back, but he totally ignored her while taking a couple of hampered steps away and trying to gently guide his clutching Akitsu.

"Later Kaze-chan. Ahhh, Uzume-san," Logan stopped and smiled ruefully while casually rubbing the his right temple. "I guess I really do suck at first impressions, second ones too. Sorry. Thanks for helping me with the lightning twins Homura. Well, that's it. Sayonara gang."

"Lo-chan," Kazehana stepped off the porch and put her arms around Akitsu from behind, gently tugging her deeply sobbing and broken "friend", turning her, and holding her like a totally sympathetic older sister. Who ever said an aching romantic heart couldn't also be bold and take opportunistic advantage of such a made for big sister situation? "I think later is NOW if it's okay with you, big boy. Aki-chan needs a friend, and, well, so do I. TWO in fact. By the way, you had me when you sang that sad song about Itsu to me in Shiba Park."

Logan frowned in concern at the unexpected permanent Sekirei bonding Kazehana was obviously offering him. Man, this was EXACTLY what he needed to avoid! What would they eat without money? And no more expensive beer and cigars! Man! He didn't want any more permanent female companion stuff! Not another possible Itsu either! On the other hand, DAMN! What was not to want? And Akitsu in total melt down was obviously accepting Kazehana's sisterly comfort. This could be very good on several levels, not the least of which the exquisitely beautiful, built, and sexy wind user was perfectly suited to watching Akitsu's back in a tussle.

"Won't be any bright lights, plush pillows, and expensive sake where we're going, and it'll be damn cold."

"Ummm, we'll just have to think of some ways to stay warm, Lo-chan," Kazehana lazily smiled in teasing familiarity with her hand caressing the back of her head. That action alone sealed the deal for him. She then gave Logan a broad, and quite frankly, lewd wink that bypassed any further objections or hesitations hiding in his too muddled mind. Kurt felt happy too.

"Kazehana, are you sure about this?" Miya asked in a stony tone of voice. "He's very dangerous, especially for you, and you know why."

"Ohhh Miya," Kazehana sighed while shaking her head in mild disgust. "Dangerous? How? Like I can't fight? I would be sooner or later anyway, right? You and Matsu have the problem, not me. He's NOT going to reject me. And Lo-chan has just displayed more loving care and tenderness towards Aki-chan than Takehito ever did for you, and you can't see it? That's why we all quit your team in the first place. Your people skills have always really, really sucked! Besides, who can explain their heart, and would want to deny it? I've finally found the Ashikabi I want and need. He and Aki-chan need me. I need him. It's, it's SO romantic, don't you think? And right now I feel the best and more hopeful than I have for years. How do YOU feel, Miya? Happy?"

"I," Miya began but went silent while mulling over the true answers to Kazehana's last accusing questions.

Whatever response Miya might have made was made suddenly moot by Logan, Akitsu, and Kazehana taking one leap together to the rickshaw parked out on the street. The two Sekirei females stepped up and sat down together. Still sobbing but now in relief that they were leaving this bad place, Akitsu buried her face into Kazehana's neck and hung onto her new friend like a little child needing her older sister's protection. Logan stared at them for a few seconds, shrugged in acceptance, and stepped to pick up the rickshaw's wooden push bar.

Giving Miya a look of pure horror at a meeting that had been meant to be so good and turned out so bad, Matsu picked up the hem of her long dress, leaped off the porch, and ran with no thought of dignity to Izumo Inn's front gate.

"Logan-san! The Americans and other countries are sending teams to capture you and Akitsu! Maybe even kill for examination! They're trying to make a deal with MBI to get you! I, I, can help you!"

"Really? And I NEED your help, huh?" Logan nodded with seeming unconcern. He started the rickshaw to move for the long slow trip back to Asakusa District, but then he paused. "Just like Akitsu and her sister could have needed yours years ago? No thanks. Tell me, are you trying to warn me, Matsu-san, sidetrack me, or just use me?"

"Oh! But I just wanted to, I want you to," Matsu bit her lower lip in chagrin at the way he had so quickly caught the different levels of her intentions. She had NEVER been any good at impromptu persuasion nor deceit! Yes! She wanted him, needed him as a Sekirei, but it was true she wanted to use him for so much more! Oh No! He was turning away in disgust!

"You cold brainy types are all alike. Always gotta have a bunch of plans cooking. Well, get this Pine Tree. I ain't interested. Don't bother to tail us either. I'll smell you long before you can get close enough to keep me in sight. There's no need for you or anyone to get hurt, and you folks won't if you just leave us alone from now on."

"NO! Don't go! Please let me talk to you! And Akitsu! I can explain! Ask Kazehana! And I wanted to, to, I'm not cold! I'm NOT bad! Please! Logan-san!" She let her dress drop and her shoulders drooped in defeat as he picked up a fast jogging pace. She finally murmured after him, "I'm perverted as all hell maybe, or at least drawn that way, but... I'm not bad."

"I'm so sorry Matsu," Miya said quietly from behind while also staring at the retreating rickshaw. "From the very first I couldn't say or do anything right, lost my temper, and I don't know why! And then he said I was worse than Karasuba! That really hurt! I, I lost my resolve to be nice and calm and, and..."

"A big case of widow's guilt," Matsu sighed absently. Fingering her new jewelry in regret that she wasn't in the rickshaw too, she continued with, "A still young, healthy, nubile widow feeling she was betraying her late husband's memory by greatly desiring a new, very healthy, virile, and living male, emotionally reacting in overcompensating self anger at her betrayal of old memories and love. Maybe a little more complicated in your case since he managed to hit your Karasuba button and prick your pride really hard, but that's essentially it, I think. Widow's guilt at lusting anew."

"Hardly call it lusting," Miya frowned in subdued annoyance. "Interest maybe, but..."

"Lust, guilt, or not, we NEEDED him, Miya, both of us," Matsu turned and took off her glasses. Once again she suddenly switched into a very mature female, calculating, coolly thinking, and highly displeased at her older friend. "And we still do. As well as Kazehana and Akitsu. The static status quo we have with Minaka cannot be maintained much longer, and when it turns dynamic there will be too many Sekirei hunting our heads. There's a lot of things in the middle of the night that could drop onto Izumo Inn's flimsy roof to very suddenly kill us other than a huge block of ice from Akitsu. They WILL come after the control rod I stole! The first thing we have to do now is find a way to apologize to Akitsu for helping Minaka and Takehito hurting her and Kochou so badly, and in such a way that we can gain the forgiveness from her we don't deserve. AND Logan's trust and help! And I'm definitely reacting physically to Logan too for your information. We MUST approach him again and MUCH more favorably, or I'll be killed in Minaka's Plan. Who knows what atrocity he has ultimately planned for you once the rest of us are dead? Logan looks like the best chance we have of stopping him!"

"I know," Miya replied dully while looking away from highly disappointed Matsu's tight lipped and accusing stare. She suddenly noticed her sheathed sword still in her left hand. Why hadn't she just left it by the door? "Let's eat and talk about what we can do to fix this disaster. Maybe the four of us can think of something other than the way Logan fills out his clothes too."

"So you WERE noticing, you sly dog," Matsu sighed at their badly missed opportunity as they turned to go back into the Inn. "I saw THAT quick look of interest when he threatened to spank you too, maybe not as interested as I want him to spank me, but I saw it. He did look and smell very, very deliciously manly, didn't he? Mmmm! Wait. Where's Uzume?"

Later, a dozen or so blocks away from Maison Izumo, Logan slipped in bracing his rubber soled footwear against the street's pavement and almost fell on his ass to stop the rickshaw from running into Uzume. She had leaped over them and landed a too short distance in front of him while standing with both arms folded angrily under her large, high set breasts. The expression on her face and her body language indicated that she wanted to be anywhere else but here as she averted her eyes down and away from him. Recovering, he was finally able to heave hard backwards, straining against the loaded rickshaw's inertia so much that the thick wooden push pole creaked ominously as it bowed inward and both side shafts bowed out. Grinding to a stop just short of her, Logan heaved a sigh of disgust too. He didn't need this. And if his head had been aching before, the stupid and totally self defeating confrontation with Miya had left his noggin rapidly pounding like the receiving end of ten spastic speed freaks simultaneously using it as a lone Whackamole target.

"You ain't gonna start bitching at me again, are ya?"

"NO!" Uzume also heaved a giant sigh of self recrimination that turned into shoulder slumping resignation. "I, I want, no, I NEED to come with you."

"What?" Logan gaped at her wounded disbelief. Another one? Just like this? Right out of the damn blue with no warning?

"You heard me," Uzume ground out without meeting his eyes. "I am, was, interested in bonding to a, a female friend for my Ashikabi, but, but my brain and heart are being overruled by my body and I think pure survival instincts. I don't know how else to explain it."

"So you want me," Logan squinted while trying to make sense of this despite a bad headache, "but you don't. Is that it?"

"I NEED you, dammit! All I think about is you! Even when I want to see and visit her, I hang around trying to see and be close to you! I can't sleep! I can't eat! I can't think! I'm burning up almost all the time! I take cold baths! Don't you understand? I'm reacting to my Ashikabi! You! I CAN'T ever be happy with her! Or survive! Only with you! I'll probably get whacked easily in the next phase of the Sekirei Plan by a bonded Sekirei if you don't wing me. Or else just die if you reject me. So I NEED you, dammit!"

"Well, you don't have to be so dad blasted happy about it," Logan grumbled finally as he scowled back at Kazehana and hat badly askew Akitsu. Wonder what had happened to her pretty parasol? Kazehana nodded her head firmly. Teary eyed Akitsu hesitated, took her cue from Kazehana, and then slightly nodded once. Logan fixed Uzume with a narrow eyed deadpan look.

"Got any money?"

"WHAT?" Uzume gaped in astonishment. "NO! I'm totally broke! And, and I owe Miya back rent."

"Can ya at least cook?"

"No! Damn you! What is this? A freaking sexist, misogynistic interview? I'm a Sekirei! If you don't want me, just haul out those damn blades and stab me out of my misery!" Uzume's arms came down to clench her fists against her thighs. "I can SEW, but only when I FEEL like it! And I can fight!"

"Well, you DODGE about pretty good anyway," Logan sighed heavily, using one hand to massage his aching forehead. Damn. Aw, well, what the hell. Why fight it? She smelled and looked damn good even if she was a constant gripe and grouch. He didn't want her to die. It would be a waste of some REALLY fine tits and ass.

"Okay, ya damn bipolar grouch. We'll probably starve and freeze to death, but if this kind of bonding bliss is what you HAVE to do to stay alive, then get your sweet young butt up there with my other two. And keep an eye out behind and to the sides for anyone following us."

"Bipolar grouch my ass, you insensitive old jerk," Uzume muttered darkly while moving into the rickshaw. "and ain't we just the perfect happy couple!"

"Logan-chan perfect, make us happy," Akitsu agreed while nodding at the only recognizable descriptive words she understood of Uzume's assessment of their Ashikabi.

Ignoring Uzume's jibe and Kazehana's highly amused laughter at Uzume's relieved/sour/pouting facial expression as he started out again, Logan's jogging feet began slapping out a rhythmic sing song refrain in his aching head that seemed to repetitively chide, "Way to go dumb ass. Dumb with money. Way to go dumb ass. Dumb with females."

The Logan Plan now had more problems, but even if the Maison Izumo visit had been an epic ally seeking fail as well as a missed opportunity for a good free meal, at least he hadn't viciously killed anyone there. That had to be some kind of plus to lighten his dark vicious soul for Kurt the Unknown Spook in his brain, right? Three bonded Sekirei. Damn. He really needed a beer now. Maybe a case. And more money. A LOT more. And feet that didn't mock him as he jogged the rickshaw down the narrow and slightly bumpy suburban street.

"What are you smirking at?" Uzume shot at Kazehana as the three of them bounced together on the rickshaw's wide, padded leather seat. With Akitsu still tightly clutching her new friend's arm for comfort and holding onto Logan's gift box of sake, Kazehana was happily humming the old romantic tune that Logan had taught her by the waterfalls and pond in Shiba Park.

"Oh, just thinking that it's such a nice warm evening with a clear sky, perfect for a sweet candlelight dinner of spicy chicken takeout, ramen noodles, and sake up on a roof," Kazehana purred in half lidded expectation and heated feline desire for what was going to happen soon. She reached for a bottle of sake that had a twist off cap, opened it, took a quick swallow, and handed it to Uzume for a swig before continuing with, "I just think it's going to be soooo romantic, especially later when we both get HOT winged by Logan."

As he jogged, Logan's chaotic mental state combined with his now severe headache made him miss the faint smells of roof hopping Benitsubasa and Kochou as the pair obliquely paralleled the rickshaw's progress about five blocks behind. To his credit, he did catch Kochou's subtle Madagascar vanilla scent, but Akitsu's much closer French vanilla masked it enough to where it didn't cause conscious alarm. Benitsubasa's bittersweet yet delicate saffron scent was too close to the much stronger and heady spices emanating from houses and restaurants cooking the evening meal for the trailing Sekirei to alert his normally more danger attentive senses.

As for the tracking pair of Sekirei, their short, two beer apiece wait, and lucky stakeout of Izumo Inn from long range had worked perfectly, especially since Logan, his Sekirei, and themselves had left the area of Miya's Inn only ten minutes before Mutsu, Mikogami, and all their Sekirei took up surrounding rooftop positions to also watch Maison Izumo for a possible Logan appearance. However, Kochou and Benitsubasa's recent luck in finding him took a weird turn and made them halt abruptly when Logan's steady pace faltered.

He stumbled as if his foot had caught on something but recovered for a few paces. Whatever had been causing his increasing and now almost unbearable head pain, was also jumbling his balance as well as his locomotion. His pressing unhappiness over his failed visit to gain powerful Miya as an ally, gaining two more mouths to feed as well as permanently bonded females, causing Akitsu's emotional pain, lack of money, Kurt the Spook's disparaging of Logan's vicious nature, and his own loathing of the deep darkness he was feeling in his soul, all combined with the anger he was experiencing at MBI, his amnesic, muddled brain, and the foulness of Itsu's murder to make something snap deep down in his head.

A hot lance of blinding pain in his skull made him drop the rickshaw's pole and grab his head with both hands, crushing his wide brimmed straw hat. The laws of physics took over. He slowed to where the moving rickshaw's cab front slammed into his back, bumped him forward and sideways to bang into the right side shaft of the skidding pole as his three Sekirei yelped in surprise. He fell hard as Akitsu then shrieked in agonized fear while losing her grip on the suddenly backward flying box of sake bottles. Slamming his forehead onto the pavement with a dull thud and just in front of the rolling rickshaw's right side, he barely felt the rickshaw's heavy wooden wheel as it bounced over him before he passed out completely. His lifeless body did a half roll on the paved street into spilled sake and broken glass to leave Logan on his back, hat mangled, kimono torn, and bloody face turned up as if he was simply, maybe insanely, yet peacefully staring above into a troubled starry, starry night.


	7. Chapter 7

**Starry Starry Nights**

**Chapter Seven – Seventh Night**

What was he? Who was he? Adrift in that weird dreamlike state of being self aware yet not awake and fully conscious, he HAD to get these questions answered! Now! But, dammit, it was very dark here, pitch black in fact, and he couldn't see anything, not even with the enhanced night and infrared vision he KNEW that he possessed, but didn't know how. Strange. He couldn't feel his limbs. Matter of fact, he couldn't even feel his lips! His body had no weight, no form, no orientation, no plane of reference. Suddenly, sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and feelings formed around him in a roiling jumble of incoherency. It was as if he was drifting helplessly and aimlessly through the dark and echoing recesses of his disembodied mind's past and present memories. He tried to see them all at once, struggling to find anything that looked familiar and answer his self identity questions.

Wait. He recognized some of... There! There was his best buddy Kurt the Nightcrawler and other half of Logurt! Hah! Hey Kurt! And ol' Colossus, that big lug! His pal Pete who so casually called him Shorty all the time! There she is! On again off again mind buddy, Betts the Psylocke, killer of that badly whittled down turd Mats'ou! The Bastard. Even Scott the giant douche bag. Ehhh. And Jean! Whoa! Looking, feeling, and smelling good! But, now, so distant? What? Wait. Kurt was dead now, wasn't he? Killed by Bastion? And Betsy, there was something very wrong with their psychic bond! Again? What had happened? Where was Emma? And Rachel? Why couldn't he "feel" their minds. Matter of fact, who were they? Confused, he tried to see more and maybe even arrange the disjointed visions appearing in his darkness. Most called him Logan, but order and a Logan self image and awareness still strangely eluded him. How could he remember them but not himself? Damn.

Then even more strangely, other faces, lovely female faces, and then their bodies suddenly appeared around him to be instantly felt and recognized; some he instantly knew to yet be alive and others whom he KNEW were dead, and yet, now alive? Again? How? There was his first great love Silver Fox! So beautiful and, and, killed, by, by Creed? Who was he? And, hadn't Silverfox been buried at the wilderness cabin her Logan had built for them? But now she was alive and, and become a very busty, exquisitely gorgeous Japanese woman in a tight purple mini dress smelling like fresh and slightly reddish petals of jasmine? This woman didn't LOOK like his first love Silverfox, yet she FELT exactly like her! Very much alive and very, very close! And whoa! His sweetly beloved and gentle Itsu was very, very close now too! Only, what? She had split into two vanilla flavored twins? One with brown hair and one with gray? Weird! Just as close was Yukio, the yin and yang epitome of totally unpredictable sweet/sour and soft/edgy femininity, but instead of short black hair, she now had ultra long and thick chestnut tresses with a side pony tail? Silver Fox, Itsu, and Yukio together in one place and feeling close to him in his mind now? That didn't make any sense! What was happening inside the psychic part of his mind? He should have high shields against these kinds of visions and tricks!

Then farther away in his surreal drifting lurked more living and dead yet weirdly living again females, their faces and forms swirling in the background of his mind's disjointed images and memories. Who? Who were they? He strained to see. Yes. One was easily identified as the very pretty and lilac smelling Atsuko in an old fashioned kimono, his sword wielding lover that had been murdered just before Nagasaki exploded, but now she had long lavender colored hair and was sitting seiza in front of a small memorial shrine? And feeling very warm and alive again? There was his lover/friend, the too tricky for her own good, Russian agent killing queen. Now how had red haired Charlemagne of the red charm tease, eventually hurt by him but killed by ol' Spidy, come back to life with red eyes instead of green? Feeling unnaturally hot/fevered with dumb looking round glasses? And Black Cat Felicia? Smelling like hyssop? Huh. Fee-Fee with her damn claws, too snarky mouth, and great looking ass, but why had she cut her hair so short and weird? And wrapped her great body in mummy bandages while wearing those dumb looking combat boots? Another one who looked wrong, yet FELT right? Over there was yet another wild female he sensed lurking in the violent dark depths of his mind, prowling the edges of the images he was seeing, familiar yet smaller and unidentifiable, snarling at him from the deepest shadows, and yet pausing at the edges of light to briefly present and waggle her round backside for mating before prowling back into the depths again. Now who was she? The Native? Lynx?

Wait. There! Over there and almost behind him in his mind was Mariko! Mariko Yashida! Standing on the roof's edge of a very tall building with her right foot propped up, a long cape and her butt length gray hair billowing in a night breeze! Staring out over a city with its highly illuminated skyline to frame her, Mariko had unusual long black boots, a short black skirt, and a sword? What kind of screwy outfit was that for kimono loving Mariko? Why had she died her black hair grey and cut it so differently? And clove smelling? Wrong feeling yet alive, or was this some strange clone/doppelganger?

Logan strained his mind to psychically push himself towards this Not Mariko. He had to know who she really was, and if not a doppelganger, then how she had come back to life after he had killed her himself. And why she had postponed their wedding instead of letting him help fight her Yakuza problems by her side as her husband? She had never really given him a hard and convincing answer to that one other than her "honor" had demanded it. Well, he had his personal "honor" too, or, uhhh, of a sort maybe, not that it didn't get frayed around the edges upon occasion. All right, too often, but what the hell? They had really loved each other greatly, hadn't they? So why not get "honorably" married and face life's woes together by using her brains and him kicking ass?

"Mariko?" He greeted her cautiously. Who knew? Wearing that sword, maybe she might be a little pissed off at being poisoned by Mats'ou's assassin and then stabbed to death in mercy by her lover's claws while still so young and beautiful. After all, she was her father's daughter, and old Shingen Yashida had been one scary fella. She turned her head to look at him, sleepy eyed, unsurprised at his psychic presence, one eyebrow slightly raised in annoyance. Now that right there confirmed she was NOT Mariko.

"You starting in with that again?" She sighed irritably while speaking out loud. Odd. She didn't seem surprised at all that he could impact her mind as clearly as he had even though they both knew he wasn't "here" physically. Did they share the same kind of psychic bond and ability to "connect" that he had with Psylocke, Rachel, and Emma?

"Just give that Mariko shit a rest, Big Boy. I'm Karasuba. Remember it, and if you've just dropped by to psychically screw with my mind, then you can just piss off. I'm NOT in the mood. And I'm NOT going on another party hard bender with you ever again! Got it? Hey, is that what's going on here? You just came by to piss me off and rub my nose in you going out drinking with other Sekirei girls and doing your Ashikabi VIBE with Benitsubasa?"

"Who?"

"Prick."

Yep. Not in a good mood all right. Even sounding a wee tad bitchy jealous of some Sekirei girls, whoever and whatever they might be, or at least really pissed off at that Benitsubasa fella. Why was Karasuba blaming him for whatever that other guy was doing to piss folks off? Doing an Ashikabi vibe? What was that? Sounded like a bad idea for mosh dancing or even floor moves more lame than the Robot, cabbage patching, or even going vogue.

On the other hand, what did he know about current hip trends in dance? Besides, he gave up dancing way before disco had died, never could see why anyone would macarena, noodle, chicken noodle soup, dirty, Watusi, pony, jerk, mash potato, twist, work, swim, or even ocho ocho, but he could probably still jitterbug or even good old rock and roll a little with enough beer in him. This Karasuba didn't look like the type to move like Jagger or even samba, rumba, waltz, mambo, or tango either, unless maybe she led some poor guy around the damn dance floor with both of 'em drunk out of their minds.

"Soooo, you LIKE dancing? And drinking?" He asked warily. He just wanted a little clue as to what an Ashikabi Vibe was supposed to be, not ask Karasuba out for another party hardy bender. Besides, when had he taken her out for a night on the town? "A little Mambo #5 with a few cold Sapporo beers, maybe? Or is that something, uhhh, you want to do with that Benitsubasa guy?"

"WHAT? Guy?" She glared at him with a half snarl before turning back away. "I TOLD you not to screw with me, didn't I?"

Okay, so she wasn't much of a dancer, nor a party animal either apparently, just an insane head chopper. He stared at her silently for a long time, taking in every physical detail, and shook his mental head slightly while doing so. It was amazing that her facial profile was exactly identical to Mariko's, and yet the feel of Karasuba's mind and dark personality was the exact opposite. The silence grew into long minutes as she studiously ignored him, staring once again out over what he now recognized as Tokyo's skyline. He almost decided to hell with it and began to drift back into the darkness of his id when all of a sudden she spoke without looking at him.

"Who was Mariko anyway?"

"A woman I loved once, fiance, daughter of a Yakuza clan lord, Shingen Yashida, but murdered before we got married. Hired assassin poisoned her. She asked me for a merciful death. I gave it. Your face is an exact duplicate of hers even though she was a much better person than you and me in every way. Still, to see you, it, uhhh, surprises me."

Now what had just happened? He had remembered all that so very clearly! This inhuman female had some psionic power that he could use to sort things out in his memories? Had she drawn his disembodied mind here to telepathically talk to him? Karasuba turned to look at him in amused curiosity.

"Bothers you too, eh? Me having her face?"

"Yeah, sorta, I mean, you know, the image of your dead lover comes back to life years later as an egotistical, insane, alien serial killer with smaller tits, gray hair, and smelling like cloves; working for some world class ass clown with an ego even bigger. You could call that bothersome."

"Heh," Karasuba gave a brief snort of amusement as she pounced on the only thing she felt wasn't true. "I'm insane, huh? Tell me, what happened after Mariko died? You go after her killer?"

"Ahhh, that female hired assassin was nothing, killed almost right away, maybe. Committed suicide, I think. I'm not sure, but the Turd that hired her, well, he lived for awhile."

"But not peacefully I'll bet." Karasuba shifted her foot off the roof edge and half turned to face him with a knowing smile. "You're a ruthless bastard, Logan. We both know it. I can see right through you and those murderous eyes of yours. The Turd didn't live well, did he? Nor did he act alone, right?"

So, there it was. She KNEW him. He was Logan the Ruthless and Murderous Bastard. That seemed to fit some big piece in the overall puzzle of his self image. And yeah, The Turd hadn't lived well at all after hiring Mariko's death. He, Logan the Ruthless Bastard, had enjoyed torturing him too much too.

"I took a hunk out of him on every yearly anniversary of Mariko's murder. His original body mass was down about two thirds and about to lose his left butt cheek to live another half ass year when he got cute. After he caused a whole lot of unnecessary trouble to get someone to kill him before I cut another chunk, he bothered a mutant gal pal of mine. She's a psychic ninja named Betsy who wanted to mercy kill him. Well, Betts is one that's sometimes a pal and sometimes ain't. We fought about it, but I let her finally snuff his ass."

"Heh, that's almost sexy. A psychic ninja huh? Interesting. And the others? There were others working with him, right? There always is."

"Cynic, but yeah, Mariko's half brother was the Silver Samurai, a sword fighter like you. He was in bed with the Turd and trying to take Mariko's inheritance. I eventually cut off his right hand. He doesn't swish his sword too good any more."

"You're a real bad ass then, huh?"

Her amused disbelief made an earlier unfocused image of snarling Victor Creed snap into total clarity, his fanged Sabertooth smile mocking Logan as they had fought and saying he was what Logan would be. This was followed by image after image of their decades and decades of bloody "let her rip" dueling until finally Logan had slain the eventually mindless, ravening beast Sabertooth with THAT sword. Nothing had been left of Victor Creed in the head he had chopped off.

"Sister," he said slowly while wondering if he too was to become a mindless beast as Victor had predicted, "not too long ago I cut off the arm and head of a long time enemy of mine whose fighting skills make you look like a sniveling schoolgirl with a dull steak knife. And I've taken out several others that you couldn't even carry their water on your best day."

Or had he? Somehow Logan felt like he battled Sabertooth after that, maybe even a couple of times, but dammit, he just couldn't remember!

"Oh really!" Karasuba now chuckled in genuine enjoyment as she moved to sit on the roof's edge and dangle her legs and feet over the edge, flinging her cape to the off side, leaning back on one hand, and patting the spot beside her for him to join her.

"I'm getting really, really bored with these twelve hour guard shifts thanks to your little stunt the other night and whatever you've done to that brainless Flatty-chan. Come over here, Ruthless, and keep me entertained by telling me all about those big bad enemies of yours."

Amazingly, her challenging interest made some swirling memories he had been drawing upon her power to see come closer together, coalesce, and turn recognizable. Yes, he COULD finally make some sense of some memories now. Telling her might really be the key help he needed to find out about himself! There followed a short trip down Logan's catch as catch can memories of battles and wars he had been in; WWI and WWII, Mutant Civil War, Sabertooth, Red Omega, Lady Deathstryke, Lazear, battle against the Hand mobsters, Ogun, robot Shiva, a giant alien dragon in Japan, the monster island Krakoa, and even his own son Daken.

At the same time he was able to talk a little about friends, assholes, betrayers, and douche bags he had known and fought with and/or against as well as fickle/faithful/ferocious females he had met, fought, loved, and lost. Karasuba kept up a highly amused running dialog of comments and questions, mostly in total disbelief and a little in ill concealed envy at his wide range of travel, conflict, and bloodshed amidst shifting loyalties, betrayals, victories, defeats, and high adventure on all continents, Madripoor, the world's major cities, and even in outer space. He didn't notice that she was surreptitiously tapping away on a notepad beside her off leg the entire time, occasionally frowning at the results. Eventually he wound down having exhausted his ability to recall and make sense of all that he had remembered, frustrated that none of it had really gotten to the total core of his self identity other than him being Logan the Ruthless and Murderous Bastard. Karasuba watched him as he mentally stared up at the sky above, his melancholy and confused mind far beyond Tokyo's horizon and even Japan.

"That is, without a doubt, the best batch of total bullshit I've ever heard," Karasuba finally shook her head in admiration, "and you call me insane? There isn't one name you've mentioned in any computer data base MBI can access, and trust me, the geeks over there get access to some really heavy duty data storage world wide. Hell, just in Asia alone there is no Madripoor, no Krakoa, no Yashida Clan of the Yakuza, no Shingen, no Silver Samurai, no Hand crime organization, no Tyger Tiger, no Ai Chia Wong, no Yukio, no Amiko, no alien dragon attack of Japan, no Ogun, no demon Muramasa, no Daken, no Itsu, no Jasmine Falls, no Atsuko, and no freaking Mariko Yashida. So you can forget calling me her from now on, Slick. There's no world wide hunt or even mention of any of those exotic named mutants like Sabertooth, Kitty Pryde, Storm, Cyclops, Jubilee, Rogue, Colossus, Nightcrawler, or any mutant organizations either. You, my totally delusional and grade A asshole, are also a first class loony, but I must admit, you tell it well even if your mind is a total mess. It was fun. So who are you? And other than a ballsy ruthless prick, what are you?"

He held very still, looking through her eyes down at the busy night streets far below while troubled greatly. She had been telling the truth about none of his supposed memories being real? He could sense it in her mind voice and attitude that she at least thought she had. Not one mental image of his memories had been real then, and no one he had known? Where was he? Or was his head that screwed up? But it all seemed so real. Wait. He had been used with false memories injected into him before. Was he being manipulated again? Now? His fist blades were real and his strength, weight, and quick healing. He wasn't human. That he knew for sure. Some kind of deep secret experiment for human enhancement, maybe? Yes! Weapon X! But, no, that program had been publicly exposed years ago, and there would surely be some computer data on it everywhere by now, right? Some program beyond Weapon X or, or what? Damn! What was going on?

"Our geeks are betting you're some enhanced, war cyborg experiment, probably American, that shouldn't be running around free in Tokyo," Karasuba gauged his reaction to her announcement with a sidelong glance and probing his mind. No response from him. Wait. There was a small confused frown on his features.

"Hey, you REALLY don't know who or what you are, do you?"

"I know for sure that I'm Akitsu's mate with dog tags saying I'm Logan or Wolverine, or both, maybe, and I'm Canadian, I think," Logan shrugged in resignation. Maybe he wasn't even Logan the Ruthless Bastard either. How did a fella become a figment of his own imagination? Hell, even Fake Face didn't really know anything more about him than he did, and a lot less apparently, and she sure as hell didn't know shit about Mariko. "And I know you're the very image of a great and sweetly beautiful love of mine, and yet you're so revolting ugly inside."

"Revolting, eh?" Karasuba snickered in disbelief. "And ugly? So you're saying you don't like my sexy thighs and hot looking ass when you keep ogling me?"

"Ya know, self loving, fake face, and probably still a virgin gals like you are all alike, one curious look at you actresses from a guy, and you always start running your mouth about your supposed hot sexuality when you're really a total inexperienced dud in the sack. Can't even spell romantic and mutually satisfying sex let alone understand and do it."

"Oooo, now you're not only getting defensive, you're taking shots at Hollywood and Bollywood starlets? Oh, but they're not inexperienced virgins in romantic sex, now are they. I suppose me pole dancing or even doing a slow hula in grass skirt would leave you cold too?

"As IF, and that's a giant IF, you could drag yourself away from your mirror long enough to even find a pole or grass skirt, let alone take a bath and brush your teeth. Face it, Fake Face. You got less sex appeal than an unrinsed bathroom mop."

"Yeah? Then what was with that romantic feeling Starry Starry Night thing you left for me on the door back there? And while we're at it, that stupid attack on MBI's compound?"

"Ahhh, wasn't meant to be romantic and that attack was just a little exercise in educating Micky," Logan mentally shrugged again in growing disinterest. Bandying insults was not going to get him any information he wanted. It was time to go and break this psychic connection/interview.

"Giving Four Eyes the knowledge to be wise in the future and never threaten me again, nor try to stop me from going where the hell I want to go. Starry Starry Night. Remember the song's line they could not listen they did not know how, perhaps they'll listen now? Let's just say the note indicates I'm fairly worried I might become more of a wild beast that might run amok and kill everyone down in that compound, including you, next time, especially if you guys keep screwing with me and Akitsu. You and Micky better listen."

"Woo! I LOVE a good threat! A rampaging wild beast, huh? Killing everyone in sight? Blood and total mayhem? Now THAT actually sounds pretty hot AND romantic! Kinda makes me want to rip my panties off and jump YOUR bones!"

"No thanks," Logan sighed in disgust. MBI's dog was a total sicko all right. What a waste of time and energy this whole dreamlike push to here had become. "I'd rather have a beer."

"Ouch," Karasuba chuckled heartily while wincing, but it belied the sudden coldness in her obsidian eyes. "There's another real ego boost! I've never taken second place to a beer before."

"A twisted sister like you always running around with sour breath and unwashed panties better get used to it," Logan observed dryly as he willed himself up and away from her, slowly breaking their psychic bond. "A dud act like yours could never win first prize anyway, let alone simply finish. I'm leaving before you start drawing flies."

His disembodied mind drifted back in the direction where he had been and away from Karasuba's now white hot hostility. He pushed away from her harder only to find that only total darkness in his memories was now surrounding him again. Maybe he was Logan the Ruthless Bastard, and now, maybe not. What was real? He was once again alone, then, just as the sense of his body's weight returned, he was suddenly falling to hit hard while still not knowing who or what he really was, and now, not even where. An intense pain lanced through him as Logan actually felt his head hit something very hard, then his mind faded into total unconsciousness.

***scene break***

Was that who and what Logan was? Matsu blinked then wiped and adjusted her constantly fogging glasses as she once again read the very brief addendum to a very old, still classified, and top secret file of enemy secret agents captured by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. She had just found the small entry buried in Japan's current Ministry of Defense data archives during a very focused and intense psychic/electronic search of "Logan" that had taken hours to refine and then glean the ¼ billion data hits garnered word wide. The few abbreviated words now on her computer screen were as puzzling as they were extremely exciting.

"AGENT FILE CODE - *Wolverine* - James Howlett, m/w, black hair, blue eyes, 5'4", 185 lbs, approx. age 35, aka James "Jim" **Logan**, Canadian covert ops expert, saboteur, master spy, acrobat, and extremely effective assassin, highly skilled in firearms and explosives, master/instructor of blade & unarmed combat, highly educated, self styled warrior-poet, multilingual, cunning, ruthless to extreme, captured/interred in highest classified/top secret "berserk/insane" experiment facility at Nagasaki, June 12, 1944, deceased a-bomb attack August 9,1945."

Matsu tried to contain her rising excitement as she downloaded the small entry to her notepad, but as usual, everything about Logan beget even deeper mysteries! She had to show this to Miya! Once again Matsu found herself pounding barefoot and disheveled down Izumo Inn's stairs while racing for Miya's small bedroom suite next to the Inn's first floor bath. She even forgot to politely knock before throwing Miya's door open and flinging herself inside.

Miya, sitting seiza in front of deceased Takehito Asama's small shrine set against the middle of the room's back wall, sent a highly annoyed look back over her shoulder. Matsu's entrance had disturbed the smoke from the shrine's burning incense, making it swirl about the open, tall wooden box standing beside a picture of the smiling Takehito. The box contained two long, curved bokken, the wooden practice swords shaped like katanas given to Miya earlier that evening by Logan. To Matsu who had frozen at Miya's angered look, it looked as if a similarly disheveled looking Miya was either explaining Logan's gift to her dead husband's spirit and/or asking for permission to keep and use it.

"I, I, uhhh, SORRY!" Matsu finally gulped out while thrusting out her notepad to Miya's back. "I didn't think, and, and, I found THIS! Miya! It's, it's about LOGAN! Who and what he is! Or, or, well, MIGHT have been! Uhhh, maybe, I, I just don't KNOW!"

Miya closed her eyes and sighed, her proper meditating posture drooping slightly. She couldn't let Matsu know Takehito's devoted widow had been tossing and turning upon her futon; trying to sleep before finally deciding to confront her inner turmoil. The result of Miya's emotionally charged failure/attraction during their meeting with Logan had GREATLY bothered her. Even gazing at Takehito's calm smiling face hadn't helped as it had in the past, because Miya's thoughts kept forming an image of Logan in his rickshaw runner outfit, his bulging arms, broad shoulders, muscular chest and thigh muscles, and, and THAT other highly disturbing bulge. And just before Matsu had burst in, Miya had fought letting those images of him lead into images of him and her intimately together, sensuously washing and bathing each other as she had with Takehito that obviously would also lead to, to... Logan and her kissing and, and... her sweet, hot surrender. Miya shook herself while clenching her fists.

"What IS it Matsu? And it had better be good for you to, to," Miya hesitated to say just how she was being disturbed.

"Miya! I think I've found him! Logan!" Matsu rushed forward and threw herself down to point to her notepad. "Or at least, his grandfather! Look! It all fits! His last name! His Canadian accent! His description! Being in Nagasaki like Homura said! His, his fearless attitude! Even coming here dressed in archaic clothes!"

"His clothes?" Miya's right eyebrow went up in skepticism. "That of a rickshaw runner from over a hundred years ago?"

"YES! It's an old undercover/master spy technique of being so outlandish and noticeable that no one notices the individual, only the outfit! Anyone searching would subconsciously and almost automatically look past the wearer and his tourist ride equipment because it's so way over the top obvious! Logan and Akitsu came here like that with those huge old hats hiding their faces just in case anyone was watching Izumo Inn for them! And they were! Mutsu and his gang are still out there! And I think Logan dressed that way to impress you! Homura described you to him as very old fashioned and, and..."

"Old fashioned?" Miya's suddenly cool frown interrupted Matsu's enthusiastic explanation.

"Express Logan's poetic and romantic side!" Matsu plowed on to deflect Miya's quick ire, "and why he's so enamored with that old sad song Starry Starry Night! The lyrics described masterpiece paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, a disturbed painter in an insane asylum who eventually went totally nuts and killed himself! Get it? Logan the highly educated assassin somehow identifies with the deeply disturbed longing and darkly romantic meanings behind Van Gogh's paintings about life and death! Especially when it comes to losing his beloved Itsu! Read this! READ THIS!"

"Matsu," Miya slightly squinted in disbelief at her excited and highly distraught Sekirei tenant and friend being initially rejected by her Ashikabi. "Are you missing the parts of deceased in1945 and the fact that this guy was 35 then and would be over a hundred years old now? And if it was Logan's grandfather or even a close relative, this description doesn't mean this old dead spy passed the family tradition along to our Logan. Nor does it say one thing about Van Gogh."

"OUR Logan?" Matsu said softly after a very long and pregnant pause, her red eyes searching Miya's while feeling a new yet faint psychic connection between them. She reached out and touched Miya's hand that was holding the notepad. "You, you are reacting to Logan too, somehow? Even though you can't be winged? Or just getting the HOTS for him as a female?"

"You're burning up!" Miya snatched her hand away in embarrassment at being found out and then brought her palm back to touch Matsu's forehead in alarm. She had carefully kept the imperative secrets that her beloved Takehito hadn't been an Ashikabi as well as her ability to be winged for all these years. And she wasn't about to divulge either facts now to anyone, not even Matsu, not yet. It wasn't time, but Logan? Reacting? Maybe? If she could repair such a totally disastrous first meeting somehow? But he wasn't even human, or was he? Yet incredibly attractive! But first Matsu and her crisis. Miya felt Matsu's throat and found a much too rapid pulse. "And you're pulse is way too high! Get to the bath now Matsu! Run cold water and get in! Immediately! You can't let your body temperature go out of control, or you'll suffer brain damage! I'll get ice compresses!"

"But Miya!" Matsu protested as she was literally picked up and shoved out of the bedroom. "It's him! I can just FEEL it! If his body regenerates then maybe he doesn't age or at least ages slowly! He could father our babies AND still be alive when they grow up! Even generations of our babies! Miya! Please LOOK at this seriously!"

"Yes, yes," Miya sighed indulgently as she forced Matsu into Izumo Inn's bath. "But let's take care of YOU first, and then we can talk more about who and what OUR Logan might be."

***scene break***

"So who and what is Logan then, Boss?" Haihane repeated louder in an aggravated voice as she paced back and forth in front of Karasuba's open bathroom door. When all she heard in return was sounds of teeth being brushed and mouth being rinsed, Haihane stopped impatiently with her fists on her hips.

"You made a very deep mental connection to Logan for some time tonight, but didn't track him down and kill him, right? Why not? He getting to you? Got you spooked? What? Is that why you quit our guard spot to take a bath? And what has he done with Washboard? Where's she? What are the two of us gonna do if she's gone for good?"

Wrapped only in a large white bath towel and long wet hair hanging limply in front of her right shoulder, Karasuba strolled out of her bath. She gave Haihane a half bored/half irritated look before letting out her own exasperated sigh. She sat down on her dressing bench, picked up a brush, and began stroking the tangles out of her long and wet gray hair.

"Sit down, and take a few deep breaths, will ya? First, I didn't get any sense of where Logan actually was in Tokyo so that I could find and kill him. It turns out the prick has strong psionic powers too and is maybe able to mentally mask his location somehow. Second, he hasn't got me SPOOKED. I'm just smart enough not to jab a freaking wild animal unless necessary, at least until I've actually seen him in action myself. Then we'll know how to fight him when we have to. Call it reasonable wariness of an unknown quantity because the bastard FEELS really dangerous. Third, he drew a total blank when I asked him about Benitsubasa, and I actually believe him. She's was drinking and pissed off at you for ragging on her again. Now she's probably on another bender like last time. She'll be back. I've pulled Number 55 Saki out of MBI's spy pool and got her doing Minaka's guard duty up on the roof. She can take Flatty-chan's place for now and from now on if need be, so ease up on the panic and crisis mode, okay? Now let's look at the big picture, and answer this question. What do we HAVE to do about Logan?"

"Well for one, we have to stop him from wrecking our home base again! I mean, damn! Minaka's going absolutely nuts! And it made us a laughing stock!" Haihane grimaced as she threw herself into an overstuffed chair and began nervously, angrily tapping her fingers on the chair's arms.

"Which is exactly what that crazy ass Logan wanted," Karasuba responded with a small unperturbed smile. "And you've got to give the ballsy bastard his due, it worked. He expressed zero interest in Minaka's Sekirei Plan other than being left out of it, then Minaka threatened him. Minaka got hit hard. Now, if Minaka leaves Logan totally alone to go his own way which is what Logan says is all he wants, then Logan does nothing to MBI. Minaka calms down and goes back to his game. Meanwhile every major military power has shown signs of going after Logan, so let them. One of their snipers can take out Akitsu, right? Maybe even Logan too. When that happens we go get her body and let them have his. Minaka already has that deal in the works with the Americans. Until then, we, you and I, need to do, nothing."

"Okaaaay," Haihane grudgingly admitted. "Then what about the Sekirei Plan?"

"Again, nothing. Look. Logan doesn't even know who and what he is. All he knows is what we know. He's a physically and psychically powerful, claw wielding amnesiac that Akitsu has latched onto, not human and not Sekirei and not even a true Ashikabi. Did Logan and Akitsu seek any further information about the Sekirei Plan? No. Have they fought any other Sekirei? No. Have they sought out any unwinged Sekirei to increase their power? No, at least none yet. Have they tried to gain powerful allies with other Ashikabi? No. Are they working for any foreign government or corporation to steal MBI's Sekirei assets and secrets? No, or they would have hit the underground labs when they had the wide open chance and been long gone by now. That buffoon American agent named McKenzie would have told everybody about that plan before hand anyway, and even they don't know who or what Logan is, or at least claim not to.

"But, we KNOW Akitsu is brain damaged, and now I'm pretty sure Logan is too. Him going nuts on that cop car in the park was the work of an irrational and probably insane mind just like Akitsu hitting that passing helicopter. Now we KNOW he's totally delusional because everything he related to me earlier during our psychic contact had zero factual basis of provable reality. Where he came from, who knows? And the same for who and what he is, but then again, do we really care? The consensus of our geeks is that he's a giant problem child of some super secret experiment that some other government has lost control over, and now he somehow just happened to land in Japan. All we have to do is let them deal with him while we keep an eye on Akitsu in Tokyo and for now just do nothing. Feel better?"

"Sounds simple enough, I guess," Haihane frowned while relaxing slightly. She cocked her head sideways and gave Karasuba an appraising look with one eye narrowed. "So why are you taking a bubble bath and brushing your teeth BEFORE breakfast, Boss? You got the hots for that screwy old guy now or something?"

"Nope," Karasuba audibly sniffed while grimacing slightly, "just got tired of smelling like an unrinsed bathroom mop."

Haihane gave her boss another silent and contemplative frown. Now who other than mouthy old Logan would make Karasuba think something like that? And stay alive? After a long silence Haihane's frowned deepened when Karasuba spoke again in somewhat of a distracted tone.

"Claws, do you know how to dance? Something called the Mambo #5? Ever heard of it, or done it on a dinner and dance date?"

"Boss," Haihane responded in aggrieved disbelief. "Do I LOOK like some kind of dinner date and dancing diva? Hell, I've never even been asked out for ice cream and a movie, let alone go drinking and dancing! Never even BEEN on a date for that matter or asked out. I don't get too many whistles just walking down the street either. I can't even remember talking to a guy in public other than work, uhhh, unless you count that old doofus Logan the other night. Say, is HE messing with your mind here? Is that what this is? He ASKED you out again?"

"No, no, of course not. Just curious. That's all. Forget I even mentioned it. Besides, when I went out with Logan it was strictly business. Minaka ordered me to do it, remember? I'm gonna eat and hit the sack. Later we'll head out and drag Benitsubasa's drunk ass back and dry her out again."

"Uh wait, I forgot to tell ya something," Haihane scratched her head while squinting to remember exactly what it was. "Oh yeah, I got a call from Security last night about Washboard's cellphone being found at The Sake and Suds Bar near Shinjuku Station. We should probably start looking for her around there."

"What was she doing in the east?" Karasuba stopped brushing her hair and turned to give Haihane a puzzled look. "She's never hung out over there before has she?"

"Ahhh, once," Haihane shrugged. "We met Number 22 Kochou for a couple of beers a few weeks ago. Her and Washboard used to be big drinking buddies and school chums back in our Kamakura Island days growing up."

"Kochou? Kochou," Karasuba shook her head slightly while rubbing her chin and gazing sightlessly at the wall. "Wasn't she a bratty little super brain type that, uhhh, Minaka had all kinds of trouble calming down after, oh shit! Now I remember! She's Akitsu's twin sister! Separated and drugged hard when they got too powerful for Minaka to control even as little kids! Allied to Higa now, ain't she? Hah! It's a good thing she's already winged and Akitsu's been short circuited! If those two had ever gotten together with the same Ashikabi, it would have made Hibiki and Hikari look like elementary school weenies!"

"Yeah?" Haihane's half hair covered facial features took on another highly worried look. "So what if, uhhh, Kochou switches her alliance to Logan and Akitsu? And he wings a still hammered Washboard too? She may be a brainless flat chested ditz, but, uhhh, she's a strong psychic too, and one helluva ranged and close combat fighter, so, ummm, I mean, that's a LOT of serious fighting firepower there, especially for Logan slamming everyone in the Sekirei Plan. What do we do then?"

Karasuba stood up abruptly with her face set in sudden deadly seriousness as the same thought had already occurred to her. Her towel fell to the floor as she reached for clean panties and then turned to get a clean battle uniform from her closet. Her reply was just as deadly serious.

"Then you and I and Saki will have to kill them all immediately despite any deals Minaka makes with outside governments, and no matter who or what Logan really is."

***scene break***

His confused and still amnesiac mind came back to sentience after hitting hard in that fall, but now he was again back in a disembodied state of not knowing who or what he was. Once more he also began drifting helplessly and aimlessly through the dark and echoing recesses of his past/present memories, none of which meant anything to him now. It was as if almost everything within his rational mind and soul had been stripped bare to leave him as an elemental being barely able to sense his self awareness; an awareness of a dim, human taught part of him surrounded by a wily, feral, and predatory animal. A faint soft glow on the distant edge of his mind called to him. It was an old memory of coldness and freedom, smelling of earth and pine forests, and feeling very familiar. He willed himself that way to find himself suddenly standing on a snowy, rugged, and tree covered mountain.

The dark of night and its pine laden breezes did not conceal the points of body heat and faint unmistakable scent of distant human enemies moving toward him. They were slowly and almost carelessly advancing up a tree and snow covered mountainside in his northern wilderness home. The cloying human scents of sweat, soap, leather, gun oil and diesel exhaust fumes on the cold mountain winds drew a deep snarl from his lips. Hunters carrying their fire shooting metal sticks and riding in their metal beasts were hunting him, again. He had repeatedly warned them to leave him alone by marking his far flung dominion with his urine, but once again they had not listened. Perhaps they did not know how because they had such poor noses and were still foolishly working their way towards another mountain behind him; one where he had seen three of their metal air creatures yesterday. His human enemies must have assumed that this time he would once again go deeper into the mountains as a dumb animal and not move towards them.

Once again Wolverine would kill, kill them all as in other times he had been hunted by humans. He bared his teeth in a feral growl of rising anger at their aggressive invasion of his northern mountain wilderness. This vast range of tall rugged mountains was his home, not theirs. This time he would not let them and their metal air creatures hound him towards a place they had prepared for his capture while making him sick and dizzy. The last time he had fought free before turning to slaughter them, but the colored clouds from the bad exploding eggs the air creatures had dropped had left him sick and wheezing for several days. He had learned. His lips came back even more to bare his fangs as he growled deep in his throat. This time he would attack first and now, tonight, hours before they were prepared and still more carelessly on the move towards their dawn rendezvous with their metal air creatures.

As he began to run down the mountain slope, leaping smaller and fallen trees, bounding over boulders and snowdrifts, he unsheathed his long, sharp metal claws. Swiping away potentially hindering branches, his feral growl became a series of hard grunts in rising berserk rage and blood lust. So lost in attacking these hated humans, the feral and almost mindless Wolverine did not see nor smell an upwind and smaller attacking female; one with long streaming pink hair who was also bounding obliquely down the mountain towards his enemies' right flank.

Wolverine burst out of the trees into a very large sloped meadow filled with staggered lines of armed troops in white battle dress and night goggles. They were walking with and around armored tracked vehicles painted in winter camouflage. Even though he had nominally caught them by surprise and far short of where they had planned to begin their hunt for him, the soldiers reacted quickly in highly trained battle drill while another caught off guard but highly trained crew hastily readied their still packed capture equipment, specialized bullets, and poison loaded darts. He had only been in view a few seconds before reactive small arms and rapid machine gun fire began.

He began a blurring and superhuman weaving side to side as he continued to run, creating after images of where he had been. What painful bullets that struck him were simply ignored as his mutant Wolverine body instantly healed itself. His super quick dodging baffled launched and thrown grenades as well as the rapid cannon fire of the armored fighting vehicles. Then, he was among them. His long slashing and stabbing Adamantium claws began their bloody and deadly work long before the invaders could ready their heavy capture nets and specialized drug darts filled with colloidal fluids containing very expensive and very rare Adamantium allotropes and Carbonadium.

The confused soldiers, unprepared for such simple, animal, hand to hand viciousness, could not fire en-mass for fear of hitting their comrades, nor could they kill their berserk attacker with shooting single and short bursts of assault rifle and heavier machine gun bullets. Most panicked and tried to flee as Wolverine ravaged among them; blood and bodies flying about as if they were crimson loaded brushes being wielded by an insanely murderous painter intent on depicting his madness on a snowy linen land. Then the small pink haired female dressed all in black attacked on the side opposite of the rampaging and completely berserk Wolverine.

Fists and feet striking with superhuman speed, she literally blasted her way among and through the special capture unit of soldiers armed with anti-Wolverine bullets and darts. They were unaware of the fatal bone and soft tissue crunching sounds coming at them from their right and masked by the din of battle. They were totally focused in trying to draw a bead on and get a clear crippling shot at Wolverine when she struck. She only paused from her killing of them to strike the ground in front of one armored fighting vehicle. She then rushed another as the first exploded from the force of her shock wave that ignited its explosive shells and fuel. Another blew up, then another until suddenly, it was just Wolverine and the unknown female standing in the midst of the now silent, unmoving, burning, smoking, and bloody carnage they had wrought together.

He snarled at her in scowling confusion as she began a slow and sensuous walk towards him. Calming from his killing rage, he could now sense their new male/female mental connection. She felt very pleased at what they had done together and wanted him to be proud of her. When had this link happened? She smelled of fresh blood and smoke with a slight, bittersweet, and saffron musk. Her too hot body was not human. Her hair was long and pink, her eyes red, and her very slim and almost tomboyish figure did not look familiar, yet Wolverine KNEW her somehow. A dim memory of a female human named Lynx came to him from the very small part of him that still retained a trace of sane humanity. The feral aura around this not human female was all Lynx as was the adoration in her facial expression and mind. She approached him whining and mewling in pure pleasure, her half gloved hands reaching for his shirt to pull and grind her much smaller body onto his. Her tongue began licking and biting his gore covered chest now exposed by his gunshot tattered t-shirt. She was demanding that he mate with her NOW despite the differences in their sizes and his still scowling confusion.

Wolverine pushed her roughly away, snarling loudly again as he did so, crouching and holding his long bloody claws crossed in front of him to warn her away. She began snarling back at him while yet panting in feral desire, half circling him in the crimson splashed snow, pausing only briefly to present her waggling rounded backsides in invitation to mate. He took several deep breaths of the stronger and now exciting musk she was emitting, and stood with his clawed fists down by his thighs. Seeing this, the feral female scrambled on her hands and knees to him, clutching at his lower legs and dragging herself up towards his stiffening loins. He put his the lower palms of his fists on her slim yet muscular shoulders and stopped her. She whined in renewed discontent, her upturned red eyes pleading with him to take her, especially since she could smell and see his growing avid interest in her. He snarled again in confusion while backing away, crouching and rapidly swiping his long claws through patches of clear snow to cleanse them.

Something was very wrong. That small human taught part of him was alerting him to unknown danger. This female in blood lust heat was not Lynx, yet in FEEL she was. Somehow he realized that this attack and wholesale slaughter memory he was reliving HAD happened, just as several others mass killings of human hunters by him had happened before it, but there had been no pink haired female fighting with him before. Where had she come from? How had what he remembered so clearly been changed this time?

"You want me! I can see and feel it! I can SMELL it!" The pink haired female panted out loud suddenly. "Take me! Take me! I NEED you!"

Wolverine frowned at her anew. Somehow the small human taught part of him had also understood the sounds that had come out of her mouth. She wanted very much to mate with him. He knew that already from the way she smelled and acted, but need? Mating was mating. He had mated with several females, and then left them to return occasionally as was the way of his species. Yet mating with this one felt like she would not let him just freely leave, ever. This one would always follow. He sank to his haunches, letting his claws retract while cocking his head to stare at her. She too was not human, but did he care? No. She had fought well, protecting his back. That was good. He would protect her also. The small, highly agitated, and dim human taught part of himself also finally came to grips with something and calmed into peaceful acceptance. He was a feral beast of the wilds. He killed when needed and/or provoked as any predatory animal would. There was no need to deny it any longer, feel remorse, nor fight it.

Not-Lynx too was a feral beast, and a young and pretty one in mating heat at that. Her nubile breasts were small, probably very sensitive, but they would grow once providing milk for their offspring. Once again she came to him, walking upright on her knees through the crimson splotched snow. She closed in with half lidded eyes of desire, wormed her way between his knees and up against his massive chest again. His hands dropped to her small but very shapely buttocks and pulled her harder to him. He would take her. Her arms came up around his neck as she growled in smiling triumph to begin kissing and licking him again while whining in happiness. She wasn't very big, yet she felt very sexy, insistent, demanding, craving, and exciting; a wild little female beast in her own right.

A faint noise came to his alert ears. He stood up instantly when he heard the far off noises of metal air creatures. They would be coming to once again rain down sharp needle pains and explosive fire around him, blasting the forests and mountain rocks around him and into him. Then they would drop hard exploding eggs to break open into different colored and bad smelling clouds that would make him feel dizzy and sick. He must move, move fast and hide before they caught his scent and saw his body heat. He knew of an old and little used cave up and to his right that had another opening on the other side of this mountain. He would run there now and hide before the air creatures came over the horizon and found their slaughtered companions. Not-Lynx could follow if she wanted. She could also mate with him later if she desired, even if she was small and it would hurt her. It would help pass the time. He began to explosively run up the mountain at super human speed, the young female Not-Lynx bounding joyfully behind him as the noise of the enemy air creatures grew slightly louder in the far distance.

Once gaining the cave's entrance, he paused to look back out over the glistening, very rugged, snowy mountain wilderness and then up at the star filled heavens stretching endlessly into the distance. This had been that old and cold familiar memory in his darkened mind that had drawn him here; to catch the breeze and the winter chills in colors on the snowy linen land.

His new female was stripping out of her blood soaked coverings behind him in rising excitement. When his enemies had tired of their pursuit and left once again, he would hunt meat. If they came again, he would slaughter them until they stopped coming. Whatever else he was or had been in the dark depths of his mind, here he was simply the wild hunting predator. Here was where the territorial and killing beast in his soul belonged; a highly dangerous and extremely vicious male animal outwitting and slaying his enemies, hunting for food, and mating with his new female. He was home in his cold mountain wilderness. There was no reason to go back to the confusing darkness and jumbled false/real memories in the dim part of his human taught mind, because he now KNEW who and what he was.

***scene break***

"Who and what the hell is this guy?" Seo Kaoru groused to himself as he stared at the set of x-rays up on the private clinic's lighted and wall mounted panels before him. "LOOK at this! He's got a skeleton of freaking metal! Some kind of unknown heavy metal at that! Look at those three extra metal bones in each forearm! Damn! They're his claws that Homura was telling me about? And yet he has all the normal organs, flesh, blood, and, even though they're damn massive, muscles and ligaments. All those big bruises on his body and that nasty bump he got on his forehead when you dropped him is gone now too! The same with the deep scratches on his arms you made trying to stop him! Man, this guy is some kind of total regenerating superpower freak! And he ain't human or Sekirei! Why do you want him to wing you gals?"

"The heart wants what the heart wants," Kazehana simply shrugged from her bedside position on Logan's right and opposite of the clinic's somewhat outdated hemodialysis machine. "Besides, is he any more of an inhuman freak than what Takehito made you, Seo? You took those treatments willingly to have some control over your Twins. Maybe Logan got treated too, maybe not even willingly, and it changed him. What does it matter? He may have different abilities, but he still looks and feels and expresses his love like a human. Look, we already KNOW what he's not and don't care! We NEED to know WHAT made him black out and fall the first time! And WHY he isn't waking up if he regenerates so well! We want him conscious when he wings us as his Sekirei, and soon too!"

"Well, I'm not sure about the what and why," Seo scratched the back of his head uncertainly and yawned. "But he probably would have woke up sooner if you hadn't dropped him on his head trying to get him up on that rolling bed. I mean, I'm no doctor, but that IS a clue."

"He's heavy," Kazehana winced in self recrimination at this minor truth. "His kimono was torn. It ripped away just as we lifted him and, and, well, he just slipped! I tried to catch him!"

"Butterfingers," Seo again while shaking his head.

The way too emotional Sekirei females, even Kazehana whom he had known and been friends with the longest, had been pretty much of a gender separated mystery to him. When Logan, and then shortly afterward Akitsu, had collapsed on the street, Seo had been a little flattered to be the first one Kazehana had called to help her. After all, his private money making business was solving problems for a price. He had jumped at the chance to make 100k yen to use his old lab skills learned from the genius Takehito Asama and see what he could do to revive this Logan guy. That flattery had quickly deflated when he had found out later that Logan and Akitsu were responsible for hitting MBI. They were both now the subjects of a massive hunt, and Seo's help had to be done on the deep hush hush or, ipso facto, SEo would have deep police type troubles too. A situation he greatly wanted to avoid due to several unpaid fines for past peccadilloes of his own. Still, Kochou waving that big wad of cash HAD been a giant persuader to do what he could, especially to the half starved Twins who wanted a giant grocery cushion on their meager kitchen shelves. Kochou had also promised to buy them food too. Seo had done what he could, called in a few favors, found a shady doctor and former friend of Takehito willing to lend his aging and barely making a profit clinic for the night, and went to work, but he really couldn't understand what Kazehana, Uzume, Kochou, Akitsu, and the dead drunk Benitsubasa saw in this freak Logan.

Seo yawned because he had been at it half the night and was getting tired and sleepy, but he was also getting a little nervous from the way they had really been pushing their luck in this place. Kochou's undisguised hostility at him wasn't helping his wary mood or his nerves any either. He stepped back from gazing at Logan's weird x-rays to almost trip over the totally blitzed and passed out Benitsubasa still sleeping off her 24 hour bender under Logan's rolling clinic bed. Seo, normally a calm and cool type, turned and did a fast nervous peek out between the old clinic's lab window to make sure his Lightning Twins were still alertly guarding the front. Uzume was up on the roof backing them up. They couldn't afford some nosy cops just cruising by and wondering why some lights were on that maybe shouldn't be and then asking for identifications. So far they had been lucky tonight, very lucky.

"All I do know for sure about Logan's current condition," Seo finally continued while turning back to face his long time drinking buddy Kazehana and trying to ignore Kochou's continuous baleful glaring at him, "is that your Logan's heart rate and blood pressure were simply off the scale when we first got here. My first quick blood analysis also showed his blood was way too acidic and there was just too much fluid in his whole system overall as well. That's why I figured his kidneys were malfunctioning and hemodialysis would stabilize all that, and it has. It's helping his vital signs come down too.

"What puzzles me is the machine's filters have kicked out some kind of unknown gunk that's in his system, and then after running long enough to be finished cleaning his blood, it kicked out more of the stuff. I've never seen that gelatinous crap under a microscope before, like some kind of metallic jelly or something. Ya know, now that I think about it, it's like the big fella's has been poisoned in some ongoing fashion somehow. Yet I'm thinking that his kidneys and liver are pretty much normal now because he can regenerate them as fast as they're getting damaged, only maybe they ain't quite keeping up for some reason. Or they got behind, needed a little help, and that's why the hemodialysis has worked as well as it has. Anyway, he's probably been suffering increasing headaches from the toxic build up in his system until he went into toxic shock and passed out. I don't know for sure. I just know my original hunch seems to be working. Look. We really need a doc here. I'm just a lousy former lab tech. I don't know enough about this shit to really cure Logan for good."

"And Akitsu? Why is she still out?" Kazehana sighed in frustrated annoyance while exchanging glances with a fuming Kochou who was tightly holding her still unconscious sister's left hand to her bosom.

"Kazehana, I'm not sure there either. My best guess is she's so deeply bonded emotionally to this Logan that when he went down, it sent her into sympathetic Sekirei shock. You guys have got some pretty intense hot buttons when it comes to your Ashikabi getting hurt. I'm pretty sure she'll come around though, probably before he does after we get him cleaned out enough. She also had a low red cell count, probably from the last round of drugs MBI injected into her. Luckily, she's got the same blood type as Logan so I've been giving her a transfusion of some of his blood. That's also been bringing his fluid levels down to more normal while elevating hers. Kind of an alien/mutant, no brainer, two for one treatment."

"Don't be condescending, you rat bastard human scum!" Kochou glared at Seo in pure hatred, but bit back her desire to bitterly curse at him again. Although he had been part of the MBI lab team that had initially separated her from Akitsu, and deserved every bit of her intense hatred, he was now the best underground quasi medical help for Logan and Akitsu they could immediately scrounge without alerting MBI. Still, she hated his ever loving guts.

"Won't Aki-chan be blood poisoned now too?" Kazehana asked diplomatically.

"No," Seo yawned again while shaking his head. Man, they had to wrap this up. Even though Kochou had forked out a big wad of cash to get Takehito's old medical college and down on his luck buddy to let them use his run down clinic overnight, their time here was almost up. And Seo definitely wanted out of here before the angry and deranged looking Kochou suddenly went postal and tried to kill him.

"Akitsu's getting some of Logan's filtered clean blood," Seo explained carefully while keeping a wary eye on Kochou, "not what's directly coming out of his body. Who knows? Maybe whatever is in his blood and body cells that naturally does that instant regeneration trick of his will make her feel a little better. Might even help wake her up quicker. At any rate, I've done all I can do here. We promised to be out of here before dawn so my friend won't get in trouble. There's several laws were breaking here since I'm not licensed, ya know. A sneak dialysis, a simple transfusion, and a few routine blood tests, x-rays, and vital sign monitoring is about all we can do here anyway. We've got to move both of 'em out of here, and then just wait to see if we're on the right track. It'll cost plenty to try to get back in here again, a lot more than what you spent tonight if I'm a betting man. And I am."

"You just let me worry about the money, you, you," Kochou began tightly, but Seo had suddenly cocked his head and frowned in thought up at the ceiling.

"Actually," Seo half muttered to himself to cut her off. "If simple hemodialysis to help his kidneys clean some poison out of his system is the right way to go with him, then you could buy a home use machine and a bunch of filters pretty cheap at any medical supply. There's not much to hooking it up either. I can teach you guys how to do it in ten minutes or so. Then we wouldn't need risking the use of this dump again, but there might be one other way to help him too. It wouldn't cost much either."

"Name it!" Kochou snapped peevishly. "I TOLD you NOT to worry about money! Now just EARN what I'm paying you! And the food card I bought Hibiki and Hikari! I don't need you to teach me anything about using dialysis either, you thick headed dunce! I just watched you already! Learning quickly is WHAT I DO! What is this other procedure?"

"Beer."

"WHAT?" Kazehana and Kochou chorused in synchronized shocked disbelief.

"Well, yeah, uhhh, beer," Seo winced sheepishly at their reaction and Kochou's instantly revved up hostility, but he plowed ahead anyway. "Lots and lots of beer to keep him pissing as much as you can, or just water, juice, any fluids really. Help his regenerating kidneys and system flush that gunk out even faster than what he has been doing on his own. But you said he loves to drink beer and sake, right? Guzzling beer and regular hemodialysis 3 times a week for 3 hours at a shot ought to get your super freak Ashikabi rocking and rolling again."

"You're not going to try anything else?" Kazehana scowled. Now that sounded way too simplistic as a cure for Logan's head pain and ills, even for medically knowledge challenged Kazehana. "Maybe surgery or something?"

"What?" Seo gaped at her in astonished alarm. "C'mon! Kazehana! I work construction part time! I was just a low grade lab tech when I quit MBI years ago! With three semesters of med school before flunking out! Not a freaking exploratory surgeon! I'm already over my head here and risking jail time! Not to mention how long I could get locked up if I got caught cutting on folks without a license! We don't even know exactly what's wrong with Logan, let alone what he is! You'd need an ultra high tech operating room to work on this guy that way! Even then you'd need some kind of super duper plasma cutter to open his heavy metal skull! Besides, his skeleton's freaking magnetic! MRI and almost every other high tech diagnostic machine would be useless! Unless of course you two WANT MBI to work on him down in their specialized underground labs!"

"That might be a good option," Kazehana frowned thoughtfully, "because I'm pretty sure he could probably leave anytime he wanted after cured, but he'd most likely kill everyone on his way out though."

"You KNOW what a killer he is and still want him to wing you?" Seo recoiled from his old drinking pal in surprised half horror. "Kazehana, this is one bad ass guy! Homura has already told me all about his fist blades and temper! And the Twins are absolutely scared to death of his super strength and speed! He's little more than a freaking aggressive animal! With claws!"

"Ummm," Kazehana smiled knowingly while giving Seo a predatory look he had never seen from her before. "Maybe I've got my naughty side too, Seo-kun. Just like Uzume, Akitsu, Kochou, and our little pink animal under the table that's probably wanting him too. AND your Twins! We ARE Sekirei, right? Born warriors? Some of us VERY experienced at killing?"

"Damn," Seo said to himself softly while letting his eyes once again slide over Logan's hard muscled body. The big fella was BIG, and add those fist blades? That was downright scary, and yet these gals WANTED him? Seo shook his head slowly at this new unashamed peek into the unfathomable depths and potential darkness of Sekirei femininity, not that he hadn't already gotten zapped out of those same unknown depths a number of times from his own dark Twins.

A signal beeped on Akitsu's simple hook up that was monitoring her transfusion from Logan. Seo unhooked her monitor, withdrew her connecting needle and tube, pressed down hard with a sterile compress on her needle wound, flipped off the switch on Logan's hemodialysis setup, and pulled the tube connected needles out of Logan's left arm. Seo then watched in fascination as the needle entries in Logan's skin instantly and bloodlessly closed. He shook his head in wonder. Man, what a fella could do with instant healing like that, with or without any other super powers. At the very least he would be a quick recovery stud in the bedroom, and able to go all night long. That was something that would be real handy for a guy bonded to twins. Moving around the front of Logan's rolling bed, Seo once again tripped over Benitsubasa's comatose body. He paused in his haste to clean up and get out of the clinic to look down at her with a puzzled frown.

"What you gals going to do about this one? You know MBI is going to be beating the whole city looking for her, especially Karasuba."

"Relax. Benny passed out while we were calling you. She won't even remember getting here. For now, we're going to park her in a hotel room near Shingen Station," Kochou scowled in her repugnance at even talking to him. "Not that it's any of your business. Akitsu and I can't afford to have Karasuba and Haihane sniffing around while our Ashikabi is ill and Kazehana, Uzume, and I are not winged by Logan. We're not ready to fight Karasuba, yet, and we may need him to wing more help before we do. Right now Benny's better off back at MBI."

"Pretty quick to throw your drinking pal under the bus, ain't ya?" Seo recoiled slightly. Man, this Kochou was one frigid customer. Good luck Logan-san. "I thought she wanted winged by Logan too. Isn't that why you two were following Logan's rickshaw?"

"Benny's a big girl, and well able to take care of herself," Kochou shrugged coldly. "She can make her bonding pitch to Logan some other time when it's more convenient for us and she's looking more attractive. She'll probably thank me."

Kazehana looked down at Benitsubasa and shrugged also. The Crimson Sekirei wasn't any pal by any means, but who knew? If she wasn't just blind drunk and being a screw off from Disciplinary Squad duty, then Logan would have to decide what to do with Benitsubasa if she was truly reacting to him. Added to that, she was no weenie stooge in a Sekirei fight either. She might come in real useful against Karasuba if Logan did bond with her.

"We'll let Logan worry about her later, Seo," Kazehana said firmly in agreement. "For right now, we'll pay you to concentrate on helping us make Logan well."

"And we want my sister WELL again too, you dirty bastard!" Kochou snarled while trying to hug Akitsu's unconscious body closer to her.

"Look, Kochou, separating you two when you both were young wasn't MY decision." Seo, finally reaching his limit, held up his hands palm out, half in defensive pleading for understanding and half in pleading for mercy. "And I had NOTHING against keeping Sekirei twins together! Hell, I winged Hibiki and Hikari, right? That was Minaka's decision on you two and even Takehito, Takami, AND Miyajima couldn't talk him out of it! I was just a back bench lab tech in those days, see?"

"A willing accomplice!" Kochou accused with narrowed eyes of pure malice.

"A PAID minor employee, dammit!" Seo threw up his hands in defeat. "You Sekirei were, are, aliens to this planet! And it wasn't like anyone really KNEW what they were doing back then! Or the deep psychic and emotional bonds Sekirei formed! None of you had been winged yet either! Nobody knew! Not even the older Sekirei and Miya! Kazehana! Tell her!"

Kochou turned her accusatory stare at her Onee-chan who again shrugged in return with troubled eyes. This was getting way too close to her exceedingly painful memories of Minaka's rejection of her. Still, in the interests of peace and keeping a paid Seo and his Twins a nominal ally, it might help Seo's bruised nerves to get Kochou off his back.

"Our early years, Kochou, were," Kazehana paused to search for the right term, "rather turbulent, and yes, ignorant. If it makes you feel any better, Mutsu and I both felt splitting you and Akitsu apart would be emotionally harmful, and we said so. So did Miya and Takehito, Takami, and old Miyajima as well. Minaka ignored all of us. But we, Logan's Sekirei, will always have him as our Ashikabi, and we'll never be separated again, ever. We'll KILL anyone even trying to separate us."

This last bloodthirsty note from her Onee-chan and soon to be mutually "Logan bonded" Sekirei seemed to strike exactly the right chord in the vengeful Kochou as she blinked and finally nodded her agreement. She turned to silently and still frostily stare at Seo, daring him to disagree. He wisely shrugged his acceptance of her icy hostility in silence and continued putting things away so they could quickly leave. On the other hand, he just couldn't wisely keep his mouth shut.

"We're done here, right?" Seo smiled hopefully and in what he also hoped was at least a partially ingratiating manner. "Mind paying me and the Twins now so we can sneak out of here before daylight?"

"Oh no you don't!" Kochou fairly growled at him. "You don't leave here until ten minutes after WE leave with my sister and Ashikabi! We've got to make my sister and Ashikabi safe! And be sure a dirty, money hungry fink like YOU won't know where! I will leave your cash and a prepaid grocery card in Hikari's name in a maglev station lock box and mail you guys the key and location. And if this beer/hemodialysis thing doesn't work, or you try screwing us in any way, you mangy looking prick, I'll have my sister SQUISH you like a bug when she wakes up!"

"Okay, okay!" Seo backed away wincing anew in nerve tweaked worry. Akitsu going nuts on him was NOT something pretty to think about, let alone both of them. "Just have the big fella drink a LOT of beer, and buy a hemodialysis machine and supply kit. Hook him up 3 times a week until the headaches stop! Anything else will have to take a REAL doctor, because that's the best I've got! Besides, I didn't make him collapse or drop him on his freaking head! So cut me a little slack here, will ya?"

"And we're really grateful for..." Kazehana began soothingly while wincing again at Seo's damning accusation.

Schnickt!

Whatever Kazehana was going to say to Seo and/or the maligning Kochou was suddenly interrupted by Logan's blades springing forth and his rolling off his wheeled bed to make a blurring leap into the far rear corner of the old clinic's lab room. There he crouched with his fist blades crossed defensively before his bare chest, his moving eyes and head rapidly assessing his surroundings. His wild looking blue eyes settled quickly on the comatose Benitsubasa.

"Lo-chan!" Kazehana called softly as she moved to go around the bed, but Logan's loud threatening growl and the slamming of his claws together in a ringing, sparking, metallic warning stopped her.

Logan stood up, still growling in such a total feral and menacing manner that Kazehana, Kochou, and especially a very wide eyed Seo slowly started backing away. With deep rumbling coming from his chest and teeth bared, he made his blades weave before him ready to slash and stab if anyone made a threatening move as he slowly advanced to where he had lain. Reaching Benitsubasa's supine figure, he reached down with his left hand while keeping his right blade on high guard, grabbed her by the back of her neck, drug her slowly back from under the wheeled bed, then easily flipped her slim body over to peer down at her. Then he sniffed loudly. He stood, head cocked to one side while eying her closely, frowning with narrowed eyes for a few seconds as if he knew her yet something was wrong as if she didn't look right. He then began looking at the still comatose Akitsu just as closely, snuffling her body loudly and then staring at her face. Again his body language and facial expression was as if he recognized her, but he seemed confused because she looked wrong somehow.

"Lo-chan!" Kazehana whispered urgently so as not to alarm him further. The wild look in his eyes was really SCARY. "It's me! Your Kaze-chan! Calm down and talk to me! Please!"

Logan looked up and peered at her too while again sniffing the air, but there was no visual recognition, only puzzlement that perhaps Kazehana's voice, body, and face just weren't readily identifiable to him. He turned his head with more sniffing as he suddenly starting noticing the lab's medical equipment and clinical atmosphere complete with needles, tubes, probes, electrical hookups, and many different bottles of reagents. His facial expression of rising anger showed that he clearly didn't like the chemical smells nor the seemingly familiar and obviously hated instrumentation he was seeing. He snarled viciously at Seo, clearly trying to decide whether to cut him to ribbons or not, but after several long and nerve wracking seconds, Logan backed warily away instead. He edged to the clinic's back wall, used both of his claws to slash a large X as if the concrete reinforced wall was soft butter. He gave one more derisive sounding snarl at the lab's astonished occupants before crouching. Logan, only wearing black spandex shorts and black, two toed rickshaw runner boots, then suddenly blasted his way through the wrecked wall and bounded away into the night.

"YAHHHH!" Seo immediately groaned in complete consternation and dismay, and then yelled, "SHIT!"

Uzume, up on the roof and unaware that Logan had went nuts, whirled at the sounds of him destroying the back wall and instinctively followed him as he burst into sight and headed south towards downtown Tokyo. She started bounding higher to keep him in sight while calling to him, but he was so fast! And ignoring her!

"Dammit! THAT'S gonna bring the cops!" Seo shouted, shaking a very worried and angry fist at the gaping back wall as the front door was blasted open by lightning. That also startled another "YAHHHH!" of complete surprise and angry dismay out of him.

"What? Seo! Are you hurt?" Hikari yelled as she and Hibiki leaped through the clinic's destroyed front door and rushed to his side.

"NO! But you guys are killing me here!" Seo shouted angrily. "What am I gonna tell the doc?"

"Seo!" Kazehana took quick command while ignoring his complaints. "You and the Twins get Kochou and Akitsu to Izumo Inn! Stand by there if I have to call for help! I'm going after Logan and Uzume!"

"NO!" Kochou exclaimed angrily. "Not THERE! Not with HIM!"

"You'll GO as I SAY!" Number 03 Kazehana rounded on Number 22 Kochou, hands ready to chop a hard wind that would drive Kochou headfirst into a concrete side wall. "Miya is the ONLY one who can protect you and Akitsu from Karasuba until we get Logan back! And we're probably going to need Matsu's computers and help for that too! YOU and Akitsu will NOT kill Seo and the Twins either! We're going to need all the firepower we can get against Karasuba before this is all over! Now GO!"

With that and Kochou's frowning quick nod of instant agreement, Kazehana also leaped out the clinic's destroyed back wall and into the night, using her wind aided power to keep the leaping distant Uzume in sight and even gain on her as they crossed the Asakusa District towards downtown Tokyo.

"What are we going to do about this freaking mess here!" Seo stood in the back wall's opening and bellowed after Kazehana. "And the doc that owns it? Dammit! You're gonna get me freaking arrested!"

"Oh forget all that, you dumb creep!" Kochou returned in a highly aggrieved and impatient tone. The mentioned threat of Karasuba had quickly aligned her priorities with Kazehana's if not Kochou's extreme dislike and distrust of Seo. "Let's get my sister to safety! Now!"

"But the doc is gonna call the cops!" Seo turned and protested while holding his arms and hands out, shaking them in a plea for common sense. There was a crisis here! He was gonna get arrested and sued, and man, he didn't have any money or time for all that!

"WE'RE the ones that's gonna anonymously call the cops AND Haihane to come here after we leave, you total moron!" Kochou angrily hissed at him. "When they arrive they'll find Benitsubasa passed out on the floor, won't know why, and blame her for all the damage! Then this all becomes MBI's problem to explain and pay for. THINK, you brainless dolt!

"We'll call your doc friend later and tell him Benitsubasa came here really drunk and looking to question him about illegally renting out his clinic for after hours treatment of Yakuza thugs getting shot and not reporting them. She got angry and started busting the place up when we denied her allegations, but then she suddenly passed out after she called Haihane and the cops to come and help her. We left before the cops and Haihane arrived because we didn't want to get involved with any trouble and clearly weren't the ones Benitsubasa was looking for. Let the doctor explain why she was wrong to be here to the cops if they ask him! And tell the doc I'll double his pay from us if he keeps us totally out of it. If he doesn't want to cooperate, then threaten that we'll tell the cops we WERE working on shot up Yakuza thugs! Got it?"

"Ahhh, ahhh," Seo frowned as he thought this all over, trying to find a flaw in Kochou's plan of payoff, misdirection, coercion, and possible blackmail. "Why would the cops think Benitsubasa was investigating this clinic?"

"Because we'll TELL them she was when we call them, moron! It'll at least hold them here until we can get to Izumo Inn and hide!" A dumbfounded Kochou turned to ask Hibiki and Hikari. "What in the hell were you guys thinking when you let this stupid buffoon wing you?"

"Well, well, uhhh, ummm," Hikari began to stammer.

"Seo may be a stupid buffoon," Hibiki asserted angrily while pointing an irate finger at Kochou's nose, "but he's OUR stupid buffoon! So there! What have you and Akitsu got, huh? A mindless short ape with claws? He can't even use a door!"

"Unlike YOU, Genius? Logan's sick and hurt! What's YOUR excuse?" Kochou shot back and pointed at the destroyed front door to make Hikari wince.

"Kochou, will you please put away the knives? We get it already. You hate Seo. You don't like us. Fine. Go your own way. We don't need you."

"Yep. Just ignore what Kazehana just ordered us to do and piss her off too. Another genius. You don't IGNORE and DISOBEY Number 03, you fool! Matter of fact, you guys just stay here or go to your apartment, Hibiki, and risk it. What if Karasuba shows up here instead of that idiot Haihane, asks a few questions, follows you after breaking your doc pal, and starts chopping heads? Smart. Real smart.

"You guys gotta be some kind of anatomical anomaly. Not a complete brain between the three of you," Kochou shook her head wearily and sighed as she picked up and cradled Akitsu. "We've GOT to get to Izumo Inn as Onee-chan ordered! Now! Let's go! We'll make a quick stop along the way to call the cops! Then we can all eat a free breakfast."

The Twins looked at each other and then Seo. The thought of free food prepared by Miya did it. All three shrugged and followed Kochou carrying Akitsu out through the big hole in the back wall of the now very sad looking clinic.

Just a few minutes later, Kazehana and Uzume both paced back and forth in tear filled frustration on top of the last building roof they had seen Logan land upon. Both loudly called to him repeatedly while running in every direction on the roof and searching the distant skyscraper skylines of Tokyo as well as the Asakusa District streets below for a glimpse of Logan's fleeing figure. Not yet properly winged, both were being driven crazy by not being able to clearly feel any psychic resonance with him strong enough to at least get his direction of travel. He was alive. That they could sense, but they could not get a bearing on Logan's location. Nor did they see the deep claw marks in the north side of the building below them.

Hanging by his claws and hiding directly below the large protruding edge of the tall building's roof, he didn't respond to the two strange, not human, chasing females directly above him on the roof that were calling out to Logan. He didn't know why the pair had followed him, but they had been in and guarding that hated place which smelled and looked like another where he had suffered great pain. He would never go back, and soon they would give up and leave him alone as he should be. He also didn't answer the loud yelling females above him because he was not Logan. He was Wolverine, wild, powerful, and free. It was who and what he was. Tonight he would rest. He was very tired. Tomorrow he would hunt food. He was hungry. Then he would go north to live alone in the far mountain forests, killing any and all humans and their metal machines trying to stop or capture him again, just as he had before on that cold, snowy, and blood filled, starry starry night.


	8. Chapter 8

**Starry Starry Nights**

**Chapter Eight – Eighth Night**

Logan had been in Hell. What was called Purgatory too. Couple of times. Hadn't been too impressed with the visits. Didn't want to go back to either, nor do any more fighting with Azrael or his pals again in either place if he could help it, thanks. Viper, the absolute worst ex-wife in the entire history of the planet, had certainly done her utter best to make his mortal existence on good old Mother Earth almost as nasty. As had the Red Right Hand bastards that had rounded up a bunch of his kids called The Mongrels, kids that he hadn't known he had fathered, and turned them loose to bedevil the living Hell out of him. Trying to live with his remorse after unwittingly killing his own offspring had been a special kind of ongoing Hell too. Then the Red Right Hand turds who had used his own kids against him for their own damnable plot had all committed suicide and denied him his revenge before he could murder them properly as the crazed lunatics had deserved. THAT had been a REAL pisser, along with Daken's evil and mocking part in the whole hellish affair. Added in was every time he found a sweet and adoring female he truly loved and wanted to settle down together into a nice, sweet peaceful life. Those old loves had always wound up dead, usually in some gruesome and hellish fashion, or at least turned and used against him in heart breaking betrayal. All those gut wrenching and long held dreams smashed and lost forever had always been followed by deeply painful and long ongoing heartaches of self blaming, grieving, and loneliness in his own internal living Hell.

Damn. Oh yeah, now that he thought about it, he couldn't leave his only legitimate son Daken out of that living Hell on Earth mix either. If there ever was a kid that had needed his mother Itsu's care in growing up, the bad son had been one. On the other hand it wasn't entirely the rotten to the core kid's fault since sweet and loving Itsu had been murdered by Winter Soldier who had been doing his bit for old puppet master Romulus. Romulus and sneaky sis Remus. Two spit wads from Hell. They were just two more regenerating total assholes and old enemies bent on constantly screwing with Logan's long life almost as much as Viper and a few other constantly attacking, super powered femme fatales like Mystique and Lady Deathstryke. Bubbly young Jubilee being turned into a vampire hadn't been a plasma picnic either. Matter of fact, there was ALWAYS some low life mutants and other big bad types of beings constantly trying their damnedest to openly use, abuse, hurt him through those he cared for, secretly manipulate, screw over, turn on him, or just outright assassinate him, and had been for many decades.

Hell, even the last time he'd tried to peaceably come to Japan just so he could visit his adopted daughter Amiko and wheelchair bound Yukio, there had been a plane full of attacking ninjas to kill before landing in Tokyo. Then that had predictably blossomed into an all out Sabertooth/Mystique led war between the freaking Hand and Yakuza crime lords as well as Amiko's asshole new Son of Sam boyfriend. For every old time enemy he'd killed, two more took their places, along with the old dead ones like Tooth and Ol' Blue that kept getting mysteriously revived somehow. And how many evil societies, corporations, and governments had attacked, captured, tortured, experimented, and just in general jerked his sorry ass around for their own ends over the last dozen decades or so? None had quit screwing with him even after all his years fighting for planetary and mutant peace as one of the good/not so good guys X-men and/or Avengers? Hadn't meant a damn thing in the end. Only made him a bigger prime target for everyone to aim at. Face it. His life wasn't too Heavenly, never had been. It was always going to stay that way since he had developed enough other enemies over the long years that hated his guts to last a couple of future centuries. They'd all be sure to keep him busy, busting in his life with no warning to use, abuse, and/or kill him and those he cared about, in and out of Hell, Purgatory, and his constant living Hell on Earth. Double damn.

Never had been to Heaven though, Logan realized upon waking, but if he had to visualize the place, then a well built, lust filled, and beautiful young redhead female with the HOTS for him and toting a twelve pack of beer and a handful of expensive cigars surely had to at least be a great way to start approaching the Pearly Gates. So when Matsu woke him up with a sort of sleeping beauty in reverse role as him playing the snoozing prince that was short, hairy, and maybe not too handsome, he naturally had a few seconds of a profoundly positive spiritual experience. Redhead females had always been a GIANT weakness of his anyway. Therefore, HAWT, young, and built redheads kissing him while obviously intent on mutual molestation, well, that and being in Heaven just seemed to naturally go together in big way for him. Call it a Heavenly epiphany of the alien redhead kind.

"Is this Heaven?" Logan finally asked when Matsu came up for air long enough for him to get in a few words.

Oh sure, there were a few other standard questions he COULD have asked first. Like, where am I? How did I get here? Why was I sleeping on my back on a gravel roofed building wearing nothing but a pair of black spandex shorts and black, two toed, rickshaw runner boots? Who are you? WHAT are you, and what's with the orange/red laser light show looking like multiple wings coming out from between your shoulder blades? And that pink bird shaped crest that had just sunk down onto her back between her shoulder blades? How did she find him up here on this roof? Why was she wearing the stupid looking white scarf/hood on her head and a school kid's pink backpack slung from her right shoulder? Did she have any grub in the backpack to go with the beer and cigars? As well as a lighter, a futon, and a gross box of condoms?

144 condoms seemed like a nice round number to start off with here in Heaven, and it would sure as hell beat getting his ass kicked around by the Phoenix Force and the X-men on the Blue Area of the Moon. Wonder what had happened to the Avengers that had been getting their asses kicked with him? Waking up here with some big blank spots in his memories probably meant somebody had tried to kill him again after that big brouhaha on the Moon. Would young Red Rutting Hood here know who? Nah. Then who or what or why, or, ahhh, screw it. Man, she felt GOOD! He could deal with all the other minor details later. He always had. The fact that he was maybe still alive or at least in Heaven with a hot, young "Red" babe working him over here with a few beers and a good smoke after was a great way to start the day, or evening if that was a setting sun over there. Then they could go get a couple of thick and juicy, medium rare rib-eye steaks with all the trimmings. In-depth questioning and catching up on the all the current whys and wherefores could wait for after a lot of heavenly sex.

"Heaven?" Matsu moaned while panting lustily in the intense afterglow of her Sekirei bonding and raining soft, nibbling, and licking kisses onto his chest and neck in her related mating heat. "Ohhhhh, that's so niiiice of you to say that! Logan-san! Hah, ha. Matsu likee! WOW, you kiss so great! I've, hah, hah, made a Kama Sutra study of sexual positions! Hah, ha, uh, uh, and I want you to, uh, hah, ha, take my virginity in the, hah, hah, armchair position! Followed by the deep position, the Amazon, the wheelbarrow, and the surprise! And then, hah, uh, uh, ohhhh, we can try some really wild experiments!"

"Gotta be Heaven!" Logan muttered to himself as Matsu instinctively used her left hand for shoulder clutching leverage and rubbed her burning full bosom against his chest. She also began using her right hand to stroke his loins, and then started grinding hers against his right hip bone, all at the same time. "No problem Red! Just get the protection out of your pink backpack and let's go!"

"Protection?" Matsu blinked uncertainly as she raised up a little from kissing and licking his neck. "Hah, ha, as in prophylactics and, ho, ho, condoms? Why?"

"Hey, since that last little go around with the Mongrels," Logan grabbed her moving torso to bring her hot body to a halt against him. He also snared a big handful of her long, thick, red haired pigtails to gently pull her head back so his eyes could meet hers still blinking in confusion. "Big Daddy James here is definitely into safe sex, babe. No more unplanned parenthood to let other present or future enemies of mine like the Red Right Hand make my life an even greater living Hell than it already is. ONCE for all that total grief and heartache is enough. So you got no biggie rubber, you get no deepee rubbee. Got it?"

"Nooo," Matsu groaned in needy disagreement. "Just take me! Now!"

"Uh uh, no way," Logan grumbled in self kicking remorse at what his unwilling mind, for once, was actually making his more than willing body turn down. There would be no more of any possible future Mongrels searing his already too overburdened conscience. On the other hand, "I'm certainly way UP for some hot and heavy mutual masturbation though! Plenty of positions for that too. Just no future babies, babe."

"But, but, you, you," Matsu frowned while stuttering in instant cooling shock and disappointment, "and, and me, and, and your other Sekirei are, are, I mean, babies are what we WANT! LOTS! Well, maybe not right away until we win the Sekirei Plan, and, and, but there's no reason we can't start now since I project that to be all finished within a month or two at the very most!"

"Babies, lots, huh? Oh man, so NOT Heaven then, definitely," Logan muttered while wincing in disappointment, gently and reluctantly disengaging from her still clutching embrace, and sitting up. He squinted at the sun and sniffed the air. Smelled like Tokyo or at least some coastal city in Japan. Far cry from the Blue Area of the Moon, and he wasn't wearing his usual blue/gold/black Wolverine battle suit, nor his usual traveling leather jacket, jeans, boots, and t-shirt either. Oh oh. His mind had that Swiss cheese feel to it again, especially in the memory department. Something else deep and instinctual felt VERY wrong here too.

Okay, maybe the in-depth questions COULDN'T wait then. Starting with how had he made it back from the Moon to wind up in Tokyo? And what, how many, and who are his OTHER Sekirei? And The Sekirei Plan? He needed a place to sort this all out. Wait. All he had to do was call Yukio and/or Amiko for that last and a place to stay tonight, as well as a few steaks, but Red here had some explaining to do about this Sekirei stuff. Maybe he better start off with what kind of mutants Sekirei were.

"Okay, Red, uhhh, Matsu-san." Logan shifted to sit up and put his back against a huge metal exhaust fan protruding from the building's roof. "We've made a nice start here, but time out. Let's pretend I've just got back from the Moon this afternoon and don't know anything about Sekirei, Sekirei Plans, how I got here, or even why. Those your glasses beside you? Why don't you put them on so you won't blink so much from eyestrain, okay? Then fill me in with what you know, kid. Hand me a beer and one of those cigars before you start. Got a light in that backpack to go with 'em?"

"Uhhh, okay, darn it! But I need to call," Matsu began while hauling her video phone out of her rather mussed white kimono's front pocket.

"Nope," Logan snatched the phone away from her hand so fast she didn't have time to blink. "No calls until I get a current sit-rep. No offense, babe, but we just met. There's only three people I mostly trust anymore. You ain't one of 'em, yet. Savvy?"

It didn't take long for a nonplussed yet nodding in understanding Matsu, she who had indeed wisely anticipated a need for a lighter and brought one, to rattle off concisely all she knew about Sekirei, MBI, Logan's seven previous days and nights in Tokyo, him in general, and their current situation. Logan took it all in while nodding occasionally, chugging the first beer, sipping a few more, and puffing away on his cigar in seeming tranquil and unflappable contentment. A long silence ensued.

"You, you don't remember anything of us even though you have regenerative powers?" Matsu finally asked in avid curiosity. "Nothing at all? And not even coming to Tokyo or anything in the eight days since?"

"Nope," Logan shook his head while staring off into the distant sunset. "Which ain't all that unusual after getting banged around hard, especially my head. My healing powers sometimes forces my mind to suppress memories, up to and even including total amnesia. It also covers up some bad psychological wounds inflicted from very traumatic experiences I've had. I call it my mental scar tissue which, ummm, sometimes ain't a bad thing, ya know? I got a lot of lousy crap in my past I really don't WANT to remember. Right now I'm pretty sure I'm operating on most of my mental thinking cylinders, but there's memory gaps again, and something here just doesn't FEEL right to me at all."

"And, and, so, Logan-san," Matsu winced slightly in anticipation and chagrin, "you're not unhappy with Sekirei Matsu for kissing you? And, and bonding herself to you?"

"Well, that does seem very premature of you and even pretty manipulative to me at the moment," Logan calmly eyed his glowing cigar stub in contemplation while not looking at her, "but then again, you were operating on eight days of prior knowledge of me I don't presently have, so how can I tell? But you are the ONLY alien female that has actually swapped spit to fully BOND with me, as your so called Ashikabi, right? And the one called Akitsu FEELS like she is since I helped her, but really isn't because she's been damaged somehow? And I don't fully BOND with any more Sekirei unless I exchange DNA with them as in kissing and such, and even if I do, then I can still REJECT their bonding? Have I got that correct?"

"Y, y, y, yes!" A now nervously lip chewing and frowning in deep worry Matsu stammered in reply. "B, b, b, but rejection after bonding means death! Rejection while deeply reacting and NOT bonding means deeply disturbed emotionally! Even insanity! Unless another Ashikabi bonds, b, b, but it's not the SAME! No LOVE!"

"Uhhh, right. Love. Way to early to talk about that. Okay, as of right now, other than you as a self described brain type," Logan sniffed casually before sticking his cigar stub back into the right side of his mouth and gazing serenely up at the blue evening sky dotted with puffy little clouds softly aglow in sunset colors. "I have Kazehana a powerful wind user and a gal Uzume with some kind of lame prehensile silk veils reacting deeply to me, another brain type Kochou who wants to bond if for no other reason than to join her sister, ice user Akitsu, and maybe your sonic, sword wielder landlady Miya who isn't human nor a Sekirei, but some kind of widowed alien female with a few spiced up hormones. Correct?"

"Y, y, yes!" Matsu nodded, took off her glasses, and began wringing her hands. The tone of his voice was NOT encouraging at all. "Logan-san! I, I, I'm sorry I just jumped you, b, b, but I just couldn't help it! We've all been out looking for you since early this morning, and, and, I took a quartering search north from you last know position, checking every place where I thought a, a feral amnesiac with, with ummm, a wolverine mentality might uhhh, hide, and, and when I found you and bent over you to check for a pulse, and, and, uhhh, smelled your, your pheromones, my, my reaction HEAT to you got so bad, that, that, well, I HAD to kiss you! Please don't be mad! And, and ohhhh! PLEASE DON'T REJECT ME!"

"Whoa, whoa!" Logan growled as a shuddering Matsu began weeping with her hands covering her eyes. "Turn off the waterworks, Red! Nobody is rejecting anybody here! I'm just looking at the situation! And you better know something right now! Most females ever attached closely to me tend to get seriously hurt and killed! As well as the kids we had! Whatever kind of life you and I have together after all the fire, smoke, and dust of this so called MBI fiasco here in Tokyo clears, we'll just have to work out later! I'm not rejecting you out of hand! I'm not a total asshole with no sense of honor and responsibility! If anything, I'm looking for ways to keep you safe for now!"

"B, b, but, we're SEKIREI! We NEED to protect YOU and keep YOU safe!" Matsu wailed in despair for what she KNEW she had to say soon. "If YOU die, then WE die! And, and..."

"Yeah?" Logan said a little impatiently when Matsu broke off and tried to compose herself. "Look, Matsu, I'm Wolverine. Call sign Mai'Keth in certain circles. The Undying One. Staying alive is what I do. Fighting too. Winning, ehhh, maybe not as much as I'd like, but I always like my odds. So turn off the rejection and everyone dying worries and waterworks already. Gloom and doomers, it'll never work, we'll all be killed types, tend to really piss me off. You need to lighten up, babe. Wolverine is here."

"Logan-san, I, I, didn't make a very good impression with you when we first met," Matsu took off her glasses and gave him a tear filled yet serious look. "You felt that I was too manipulative, and, and, cold hearted, and, and Akitsu and now Kochou, uhhh, well they didn't like me much. Still don't. We have a very, ummm, uneasy truce at the moment because we need each others protection from the Disciplinary Squad, and so do YOU, at least until your bonded Sekirei team, ummm, gets formed, and, and sorted out."

"Oh yeah, the Disciplinary Squad, big whup," Logan stood up after shrugging again in impatience. He pointed at her backpack. "You said you got some clothes and a wallet of cash and fake identification for me in there?"

"Uh huh," Matsu nodded uncertainly at his question that was actually a command statement. This very manly and assertive Logan was a clear thinking and decisive cut above the unpredictable, slightly muddled thinking, and unstable guy she had met last night. She needed to be even more wary of making THIS new him unhappy lest he summarily rejected her new Sekirei bonds to him, and she could now FEEL his psychic mind was just as wary of her.

"Ahhh, Kochou bought all eight of us the same stuff to put in a backpack for you except Miya who stayed at the Inn; new jeans, t-shirt, socks, and black sneakers with a loaded wallet, beer, and cigars. Uhhh, that's us five who, who, want you as our Ashikabi, and three other friends not reacting to you but helping us search for you. They're Homura and the Lightning Twins."

"Yeah? Okay, fine, but for right now, you can all go back to your Izumo Inn, call the search off, and just have everyone stay safe there. I don't need a Sekirei team's help, bonded or otherwise. What I need is to make a few private phone calls, talk to my people here in Tokyo, make a couple of contacts back home, and get some food. When I get a decent handle on things here and figure out what I want to do, I'll let ya know."

"Oh no!" Matsu looked up at him in horror. "Logan-san! You can't! You've been poisoned! And, and, you NEED to get dialysis treatments to feel better and regain more of your memories! Or you'll be losing everything again maybe and go feral again like, like what happened when you, ummm, accidentally hit your head and ran away last night! Before that you had headaches that kept getting worse until you passed out! We had you on dialysis last night to help your kidneys regenerate and remove poisons, and that's probably why you're a lot better today! You have to drink lots of fluids to help keep cleaning the poisons out of your system! We've got a hemodialysis machine at the Inn! And extra beer for you! And, and, Akitsu will KILL Matsu if Matsu shows up without you and now bonded to you like she can't! Let alone Kochou, Kazehana, and Uzume! Besides! Like I told you! The Americans, Russians, Chinese, and Hindi are sending elite troops to capture and maybe even kill you! MBI OWNS Tokyo now and Minaka is going to be helping them come after you!"

"Just elite troops right? No mutants coming?" Logan half smiled and then shrugged. "And even if the mutants were, Red, I like my chances better alone. No need for you gals to get caught in the crossfire. And drinking lots of beer is right up my alley for feeling better. Look. I ain't leaving town. And I'll keep your cellphone. You're going to try tracking me anyway, right? That's part of your powers? This way you won't have to strain yourself, but YOU keep your distance. All of you. No exceptions. Have this Akitsu call me when you get back. I'll explain what I want to her. Put your Inn's address in this phone's data file. If I start getting headaches again, I'll head to your Izumo Inn for dialysis."

"Logan-san! Please!" Matsu began as she leaped to her feet, shaking her head and making her long red haired pigtails sway violently. "Listen! No!"

"Red," Logan squinted in slight annoyance as he stood up. The sharpness of his voice made her shrink backward. "If you Sekirei bond first, and fall in love afterward, then we're in for a real rocky future if you start telling me where and when I can and can't go. Only gonna tell ya once, Matsu-san. I got private business. Don't want you getting hurt. Trust me. Go home. I'll talk to Akitsu, then all you gals just wait for my call. DON'T push me."

"Uhhh, uhhh, ummm, okay?" A badly wincing Matsu had a very worried frown while obediently handing over her pink backpack. "But I don't think it's going to be quite that simple Logan-san."

"Matsu, babe," Logan sighed and relented a little. He took her forearms and lightly pulled her to him. "You know as far as I'm concerned, we've just met, and now I know ya got that alien bonding thing going. I can feel it. I understand ya had severe instinctive urges and alien hormones messing ya up, but ya made a rash move here. Now, I ain't exactly against it, but I ain't an instant fall in love or even a trusting type of guy either, haven't been for a long, long time. Maybe you should have thought of that before kissing a sometimes very unlikable and fairly untamed animal type guy like me."

"I'm, I'm not sorry, Logan-san!" Matsu breathed almost defiantly. "I KNEW you were my Ashikabi last night! No matter what! I'll NOT and NEVER would have bonded to another! And I would have died without bonding with you! You can see that in your mind!"

"Well, maybe. All right. I can smell ya thinking that's true at least. Okay. Look. I'll give us time to grow on each other when it's safe. I promise, and the last time I heard, my word was still good even with most of my enemies. And redheads are a real weakness of mine, so, if ya want, next time ya see me, I'll try to have a gross of condoms in my pocket for ya to try an experiment or two. No worries while I'm gone though. Now get this. I fight, damn good if I have to say it, and I heal. And this ain't my first rodeo, kid. But we'll do things my way until I know what's going on. Now, can ya live with that?"

"Well, yes? But, uhhh, what about your other Sekirei? They'll KILL me if, if..."

"Honest? Babe, I don't know about the others. I'll look at that whole situation later. Who knows? I've got some pals back home with VERY powerful mind abilities that can certainly cure any alien hormonal obsessions with me. Once freed from that, these other reacting Sekirei gals might be happy just enrolling at my Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, and I never turn away good new recruits. And another thing. Ya see, I've never done the harem gig, ever. Sounds like a new type of living Hell to me actually. I'll meet 'em though. I ain't a coward, but all that's gonna take some real serious thought down the road. Right now it feels like I'm gonna have to kick some ass here in Tokyo before we get some calm time for heavy thinking. I'll get back to you."

"With a couple extra gross of condoms? For me? Maybe?" Matsu attempted a weak smile while dreading her sure to be stormy return to Izumo Inn. "And maybe a few for the others too?"

"Oh yeah," Logan almost shuddered at what that instantly brought to mind if he didn't bring protection. He lightly smooched the tip of Matsu's nose for a friendly goodbye. He began digging into her pink backpack's contents while trying to ignore a continuing, disturbing, and not so Heavenly visual of a nursery full of several pregnant young alien females tending a bigger bunch of young alien/Wolvie offspring. That too seemed to be a sure fire route to a future and ongoing living Hell on Earth.

***scene break***

Logan stood outside the Canadian Embassy just off Route 412/Roppongi Dori in Tokyo, frowning in thought, shaking his head, and asking himself, now what in the HELL? Yukio's phone number had never been and/or was no longer in service. Amiko's number had gotten a wrong party three times in a row. Neither Yukio nor Amiko Kobayashi were listed in any directory, which wasn't too surprising, but he simply couldn't FEEL either of them in his mind; Yukio as his former lover, nor Amiko his adopted daughter who now had the magic Mark of Mana necklace as the High Priestess of the Shosei Clan and the current Mystical Guardian of Japan. There was no way he could be anywhere in Tokyo let alone the entire country of Japan without them knowing he was here and vice versa. Something was REALLY screwy here. His calls to the Jean Grey Academy back home had gotten a no service recording as had his private line call to Captain America and the dial up of his top secret number to Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. Even the Canadian Embassy sub agent had politely, while greatly amused, transmitted his old agent identifier, call sign, and code number back to Toronto and then openly laughed at Logan's expression when the negative reply was almost immediately sent back. Huh, Logan scratched the back of his head in growing irritation. Why had they of all people denied knowing Wolverine, call sign Mai'Keth? Was he now in some new kind of living Hell?

Damn. Now what? Man, there had to be some logical answer for NOTHING feeling right in this town, even though the Canadian Embassy was actually exactly where he remembered it should be. And why did all the cars whizzing by him look so freaking weird? New models came out while he was on the Moon? A LOT of 'em? Well, hell, if he couldn't contact anyone he knew that should have welcomed him coming here, maybe he should contact some who hadn't. They at least had some kind of current information on him in Tokyo if there were a bunch of military types from several major world powers after his ass. Okay, so according to Matsu, the Americans were looking for him and sending in an elite capture team, right? Wasn't the American Embassy also located about 1500 meters almost due east of here in the same Akasaka neighborhood of Minato, Tokyo? And their spook headquarters was way down below that fast food hamburger joint less than a block away, right?

Logan gave a quick whistle and waved down a passing taxi. Maybe it was time for a friendly little visit. Or maybe not so friendly, he thought irritably a little later, especially after the short taxi ride. As he drove away, the cheesy grinning cab driver had started outright laughing at his pink backpack and loudly calling him a big girlie boy. Damn.

Logan's sour mood didn't improve any when a middle aged male operative wearing a dark green janitor's jump suit emerged onto the fast food joint's roof. The newcomer frowned at the base of the long antennae housing that had been slashed off and the housing's twisted metal remains laying near by. The reason Logan's mood didn't improve much was the American agent's reaction.

"Hey, bub!"

The man quickly whirled like a truly well trained martial arts expert and assumed a defensive stance when Logan came from behind the roof's access door with a loud SCHNICKT! The agent visibly relaxed and stood upright.

"A pink backpack?" The guy responded with a vaguely confused yet totally unafraid frown as his eyes shifted back and forth from Logan's bared claws, the backpack, and Logan's eyes. "A fruity PINK backpack?"

"So I got some beer, extra clothes, and spare cigars!" Logan growled with an irritated frown of his own. "It was given to me, and I'm not much of a fashion diva! Ease up, will ya? I'm hungry, but I want answers to a few quick questions before I eat. And before we get started, keep it simple, bub. I can smell when ya lie. What's your code name and call sign?"

"Moe, call sign Big Lebowski," the agent shrugged affably. "Also answer to The Dude, and you must be Logan. Good. The Boss has been wanting to talk to you. You can put up the fist blades, man. I'm just a monitor. My fighting days are WAY behind me. Below my pay grade too. What ya wanna know?"

"First, I want the current phone number for the Yakuza leader in the Yashida Clan, and then..."

"No can do, sport," Moe shook his head while immediately interrupting. "Inagawa-kai is the lead Yakuza clan and has been for several decades. Head honcho now is a cat named Tamagami and has been since 2015. There is no Yashida Clan, and never has been to my knowledge. I've been on Japan station twenty three years too."

"Wait. SINCE... 2015? This ain't 2012?" Logan blinked in total surprise as his blades retracted almost involuntarily. What the Hell? His mouth dropped open as he tried to get his mind around this new bit. His eyes dropped to Matsu's videophone to stare at today's date in small numbers in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Damn! Time travel YEARS into the future? From the Moon? Did that also explain the weird looking cars? And nobody around that he knew? But, c'mon! The Yashida and Mariko never existed? At all? Nor Yukio and Amiko?

"2012? Man, are you tripping?" Moe gave another vaguely confused frown. "Hey look, Logan. There's an alien spaceship up for grabs that has technology light years ahead of ours. The boss also wants to offer you a BIG pile of cash to snag an alien embryo from MBI, or even a live adult, whichever you wanna deliver."

"And the elite capture team you guys got coming to SNAG me?" Logan scowled while trying to mask his confusion.

"Ehhh, Plan C to see what makes you tick and go for mind control," Moe shrugged while waving an unconcerned right hand. "Plan A is to just pay you a whopping big sum of money to work for us. Plan B is hard leverage on whatever assets you got to get you operating in our interests. We want that alien ship on Kamakura Island and any alien embryos and/or adults we can get our hands on, real bad. So far MBI has used their Disciplinary Squad of aliens to wipe out at least two full blown invasions and a half a dozen infiltration attempts that I know about. We need a guy like you to spearhead our next efforts. How about it? We got a HUGE pile a cash to work with. Gonna have to talk to the Boss for the in-depth details of this whole operation, but to be fair, we're the most well heeled, but we ain't the only ones interested in getting and/or forcing you to help."

"Yeah, so I've heard," Logan squinted at Moe and sniffed. Crap. Another world domination scheme with the usual money payoffs, blackmail, and/or mind control gigs. Devil take the losers and any innocent invading aliens and civilians in the way. Ehhh. Been there. Done that. Never worked. Moe believed he was telling the truth about the Yashida Clan however.

"Uhhh, does all that mean you guys don't have me in your files either? Code name Wolverine? Call sign Mai'Keth? Or maybe just Emilio when I was in Cuba, or Black Dragon back in my 'Frisco days?"

"Wolverine?" Moe half snorted in amusement. "Mai'Keth? The Undying One? Oh man, if we had anyone like YOU in the files, I'd sure as hell KNOW it. Nope. Not in ours. Maybe the Boss might know more about Emilio or Black Dragon, but I highly doubt it. He's a total career desk puke. Where in the Hell did you come from, Logan, and how? And what are you doing here? Can I set up a meet with the Boss? To hire ya? Or at least put ya on an exclusive consulting retainer?"

"Uhhh," Logan sighed in disappointment and shrugged while looking around and above. No doubt he was being tracked right now by at least a dozen or so cameras as shoddy as the Americans had always run this operation. Yep. Sirens were sounding in the distance.

"All those are good questions for another time, Moe. I'm gonna check out my options and think things over a little before meeting your Boss and making any big decisions. Take a rain check though. Sorry about whacking your antennae."

"Yeah, no problem, man, and no worries. Taxpayer deep pockets. Hey," Moe took a business card out of the right breast pocket of his janitor jumper. "Give us a call since your cell phone's been jimmied and not easily traceable. Probably cloaked by a pro with a coded GPS locator. I tried infrared access on yours to download my number too, but it didn't take. Couldn't get yours or your GPS code either. Here's my card. Name's Moe and the Boss is McKenzie. Gotta warn ya though. Time ain't on your side Logan, and we'd much, much rather deal with ya than get crazy with Plans B and C."

"Uhhh, sure, I know. You guys are real daisies," Logan sighed again only this time in disgust. Infrared access and GPS tracking from a lousy phone now? Damn. Well, at least Matsu had hers cloaked for the time being.

"Hey Moe, you and the rest of your stooges might wanna draw up a Plan D and intentionally leak it to your competition too. That's where you just leave me the hell alone before I take you all out of the game, permanent. Its what I do best, see? I don't want to get crazy either, but hey, on my resume you guys seemed to have misplaced somehow, I do have berserker rage as one of my more usual modes of operation. Savvy?"

"Yeah, sure, Logan, no problem. Plan D is always an option," Moe shrugged agreeably as Logan turned to go. "Glad ya dropped by for a quick chat. Say, uhhh, what's with the PINK backpack? You some kind of fruit?"

Logan leaped up two stories to the roof of the adjacent building, but turned to sarcastically call back before he started running towards his next jump.

"Maybe, but Moe, haven't ya heard? Pink is today's new awareness symbol for being weirdly trapped in a new type of living Hell."

***scene break***

Hell was actually running out of beer when a guy needed more, Logan brooded irritably, especially after a very bothersome couple of hours trying not to kill anybody while running, leaping, doubling back, and dodging about to finally throw off Tokyo police pursuit. His break away from the cops' capture efforts occurred when he jumped down into a small alley, hammered his way into an unused and barred metal back door of an old warehouse, ran through it out into an adjacent crowed street, descended into a subway terminal, mingled with the crowd, took a ride to Omotesandō Hills shopping mall in Shibuya, bought a 5XL black hoodie sweatshirt, and then hopped a train back to Shinjuku Station. Emerging in the seedy, heavy crowd roving, red light district of Kabukichō, he had finally found a nice refuge to sit and think things over while up on a four story building roof. His sanctuary was behind a huge neon sign advertising "Ume, The Unfolding Flower of Fatale Femininity". Fortunately he had been able to make a quick beer stop for a case of Sapporo in a 7-Eleven konbini while bounding his way southeast through the Shinagawa District and then doubling back northwest. Thankfully, the energetic cops never really got too close, otherwise he probably would have sent a few of the too persistent pursuers into a premature visit to the afterlife.

The protracted chase, most probably orchestrated by MBI using the Tokyo cops and eventually MBI's helicopters, had been really annoying because he had been hungry when it had started at the American Embassy in central Minato north of the Tokyo Tower. He had at least been able to also grab three Big Bite hotdogs during the Shinagawa konbini beer run to tide him over until he could get a couple of decent steaks. For now, he had hunkered down behind Ume's marred sign to drink and think, occasionally standing up to peek for renewed pursuit out of the sign's large hole where Ume's left breast should have been. He wasn't in any netherworld, maybe, but what kind of sicko planet would allow vandals to do that to poor Ume? Not only was running out of beer a sign of heading towards Hades, Logan groused to himself as he felt a dark depression coming over him, being trapped in a different future time and maybe even on an alternate Earth where people and/or Sekirei desecrated sweet street art was even more hellish.

Dammit, what was he going to do? What was his plan? According to Matsu, and she hadn't been lying, he'd been here, wherever here was, for eight, really brain screwed up days. Now, he had finally gotten his noggin working better, but he had no freaking idea how to get back to his own time and rightful place in the universe. He couldn't call anybody for help either, and he had the very real and growing suspicion that there were no mutants on this version of Earth, just 108 alien Sekirei. There was a small possibility that on his home planet he was being missed, and his people at the Jean Grey Academy, the Avengers, X-men, S.H.I.E.L.D., and maybe even a few enemies still wanting the intense pleasure of putting him out of their misery, all might even be searching the cosmos for him. Even a known enemy appearing now would be welcome if for no other reason he might be able to backtrack how in the hell they had gotten here. So basically, the way things stood for right now, he probably wasn't going anywhere soon and would be forced to wait until he caught some kind of break/contact for going home. Doing nothing wasn't much of a plan for an action type, especially since he might be here for a long, long time.

Meanwhile, the military forces of this planet were massively mobilizing to capture/study/kill him as well as multiple female Sekirei who wanted permanent Ashikabi love bonding. They were also involved in some damned "to the death" fighting tournament of their own. Even if he gave in to their Sekirei desires to form a harem/fighting team around him as their so called Ashikabi, and he already had two hard attached to him, where would they go, if and when they won MBI's battle game and fought off the world military powers? How would they live? He was more comfortable alone! Or at least in a simple dual relationship! He just wasn't a harem/orgy type of guy dammit!

On the other hand, he was definitely a healthy and hormonal male, and the way things looked, especially if Matsu was any gauge, if he didn't use a lot of caution and condoms, these Sekirei gals were going to be very hard to ignore. The longer he sat around this planet doing nothing, the more he was going to be a sitting duck for amorous alien females, and damn, his willpower for avoiding any kinds of female entanglement in the past had been miserably weak. And again, if the redhead Matsu was any gauge of Sekirei normalcy in beauty and desirability, he was in big trouble here, no doubt about it, because these Sekirei gals were VERY hormonal themselves as well as psychic. Face it. They already had and would home in on him like wildcats in heat chasing a tom smelling like catnip. He just wasn't too well equipped to resist them either, but then again, did he want to? Crap, he was going to be fighting on several fronts, domestic and foreign, whether he wanted to or not. It was really kind of depressing, especially sitting drunk under poor Ume's sorry looking neon sign on a planet that wasn't his.

After more increasingly depressed brooding, smoking a cigar, and drinking quite a few brews, Logan sniffed the air, and sure enough, he looked behind him to see a too hot infrared female outline quartering back and forth on Kabukichō rooftops while working her way towards him. The alien female, undoubtedly a Sekirei, smelled faintly like pissed on and mildewed hyssop. Logan thought for a few seconds while he watched her approach. She looked fairly hostile and was pretty obviously searching for him, so she was probably a part of his recently stymied pursuit. He decided he'd wait for her and get a little more information about this MBI corporation, particularly about why it had tried to cooperate with its enemies to kill him when those same enemies were trying to hire him to attack and steal MBI secrets. Who knew? Maybe this MBI had somehow caused him to be brought here to this screwy planet, but man, this searching Sekirei gal of theirs really needed hygiene help no matter whether she actually worked for them or not.

"You poor kid. What in the hell are you supposed to be?" Logan blurted out in dumbfounded and pitying, head shaking amazement as the badly fashion challenged, unwashed, and clawed Sekirei female landed on desecrated Ume's roof about twenty paces away from his pile of empty beer cans. His brain was just beginning to feel that little drunken and carefree buzz to push back the edges of the deep funk he had slipped into for not being on his own planet, but he immediately felt very sorry for her.

"And what in the hell are you supposed to be with that fruity looking pink backpack, ya mouthy old fart! I'm Haihane Number 104. I ain't a poor kid either, and I've got yer sorry ass now, chum."

"Well yeah, I'm totally at your mercy, babe," Logan smiled wearily while holding up a can of unopened Sapporo. "Nice to meet ya. Wanna beer? I can explain this pink thing, but first I've got a few questions that..."

He didn't finish because she leaped at him with a teeth exposed snarl, yelled a phrase, and then the long claws attached to her right hand's long metal gauntlet made a fast swipe at his head. Logan frowned at her sudden killing intent as he swayed aside just enough to simply evade whatever she was calling "Talons of Execution". Her momentum carried her past him to bang head on and unbalanced into the backside of poor Ume, the lopsided Plum Blossom's sign. Instantly whirling, she made a backhanded swipe with the left scythe-like and barbed-tipped claws on her left gauntlet. That missed too as Logan simply ducked low to put down the can of Sapporo to use his right open palm to smack her right buttock hard as she spun past him in the opposite direction. That really pissed her off. She came back with a yell of "Claws of Execution" while doing a double swipe with both of her hand held weapons. Logan easily dodged both. He frowned in thought again.

He had a quick internal debate whether to fight her claw on claw and then decided against it. This Haihane was young, unusually strong, very energetic, highly motivated, quick as a striking snake, and woefully unskilled. She didn't need killing or even badly maimed, not if he wanted information. Besides, her clumsy, unbalanced, undisciplined, and supposedly murderous attacks were supposed to be effective in executing a fella, but they simply weren't. She desperately needed training, as well as a more upbeat self image makeover combined with a big improvement in personal hygiene.

His second overall appraisal came after he spanked her left butt cheek following another one of her telegraphed and missed swipes. Actually, the more he looked her over, this Haihane had a pretty sexy and muscular shape to her. Her nicely rounded curves were exactly where nicely rounded curves should be, and naked, could be very interesting in the sack. His earlier aborted rooftop tryst with Matsu and now his beer drinking funk had left him semi aroused and frustrated. Maybe this Haihane would be up for a little mutual fun after he calmed her murderous intent a little, but damn, she would need a bath first. Okay, so he wouldn't kill her for THAT reason too, he decided, and with no kissing and using condoms, he didn't have to bond with her either, just chat and screw around a little.

First, without using his claws but open palms only, he would begin with a few basic lessons in the Filipino martial arts of Kali twin blade fighting and defense. Blades moving in circular motion like the orbits of the planets and Moon as well as triangular motions of the constellations would be a pretty good fighting style for Haihane's hand claws. Also, he would teach her all the basics of the more specialized parts of the Pekiti-Tirsia Kali style in order to close in for a sure combat kill. She would need to learn the coiled close quarter stance that allowed evasion and yet generation of powerful strikes even in close range, quartering her opponent for cutting them up into little pieces. The Pekiti-Tirsia Kali principles of destruction with counter offense for not getting hit from all ranges, angles and threat levels would give her a much better chance to hold her own, even against a powerful sword fighter as well as more ranged weapon users. Now all he had to do was convince her of her training need. Spanking her after her every missed attack seemed to be working, as well as his ability to just outlast her youthful energy and enthusiasm. Her not sexy drooping hair completely covering one eye, mildewed body bandages, and heavy combat boots would have to go though.

Perhaps twenty minutes passed before a totally exhausted Haihane stumbled back with her half hidden red face still a study in frowning rage but now greatly tinged in frustration as she panted heavily to catch her breath. Total fatigue suddenly claimed her leg muscles, and she sank to her knees. She gave Logan a one eyed wounded look of consternation since she hadn't touched him once, and he hadn't even worked up a sweat let alone started breathing hard.

"Kid, you got great agility, speed, stamina, courage, and strength," Logan began diplomatically while nodding encouragingly at her and unsheathing his claws for demonstration only, "but your fighting stances and footwork are lousy. You're wasting half your striking power as well as leaving yourself way too unbalanced and open for counter strikes. You are sharp enough to realize you ain't getting anywhere here, right? And instead of giving you a throbbing red ass, and slapping your face a couple of times, I could have just as easily ripped your throat and guts out every time I smacked you if I had brought out my claws too. You wanna keep screwing around like this, or you want a few free lessons after we get a couple of steaks, noddles, and rice? I'm getting real hungry again. Tell ya what, how about a quick beer while ya get your breath back. First, let's get a little privacy."

"Dammit," Haihane panted as he approached with his wicked looking claws now retracted, but her tired muscles refused to even twitch. He could have ripped her easily many times, and that was very depressing. She wanted to raise her bladed gauntlets and gut him when he approached, but couldn't lift them. She knelt helplessly as he simply squatted down, trapped her left arm against her body with his chest, and snagged her right arm with his left hand around her back while his right hand dipped into her ragged blue kimono's front pocket to crush her videophone.

"There," Logan smiled warmly in satisfaction. "That ought to give us time enough for dinner, get a few questions answered, and a little shopping later. Thirsty?"

"Well, yeah?" Haihane stared up at him in confusion with her pale blue right eye since her left was covered by her neck length and shag cut gray hair. "Shopping? Why in the hell you wanna to go shopping with me for, old man?"

"Look, if ya learn how to fight properly, and I can teach ya, then ya won't have to protect your skin from your own weapons by binding yourself up in bandages and limiting your movements. And those combat boots slow ya down and tire ya out too quick. Ya also need both eyes to fight, babe. I was thinking maybe you'd like to see a few better fighting options is all, but only after we eat and rest ya up a bit, okay?"

"Ya mean, dinner and shopping, like a DATE?" Haihane's mouth dropped open in surprised understanding. "In public? With an Ugly Betty like me? While you're toting a fruity pink backpack? Oh man! You're kidding, right?"

"What say we just call it a friendly excursion with mutual benefits," Logan grinned as he pulled a beer from his pink backpack and opened it for her. She pulled her right hand out of her heavy gauntlet and chugged the beer thirstily while watching him give her taut body another once over small leer of increasing interest. Her body felt very sexy to him even if she didn't smell all that great. On the other hand, a hot bath could do wonders for that, and then just let Mother Nature take over. "And I'll get a black backpack to carry my spare beer and cigars if you want. Besides, you ain't ugly, babe, just in small need of some beer, beef, image boost, and a bath."

"Babe? My ass hurts, you lecherous old bastard," Haihane scowled in irritation. There he went with the insults again. Whoa. Why were her breasts suddenly itching and feeling warm as well as other parts of her? Babe?

"A warm sauna and hot bath soak should fix ya right up there, Ash Feather. I could use one too, and a shave. Wanna another beer?"

"Yessh?" Haihane blinked as the weak alcohol instantly hit her dehydrated system and somehow her tongue felt thick all of a sudden. She took a second beer and chugged it too. Somehow she had to alert Karasuba to come and help her kill this old, mouthy, and horny guy. Then they could just chop the living shit out of Logan together since the old lecher obviously knew a whole lot more about martial arts combat than she did. Geeez, he hadn't even used his sexy instant claws to defeat her either!

Logan heaved a sigh of relief as Haihane started to visibly relax. Even if she seemed to now be intent on rampaging through his few remaining beers, at least he could buy another case or two and get something more hearty and satisfying to eat than Big Bite hotdogs. Oh yeah, better buy a gross of condoms just in case she got to feeling frisky later. They were certainly in an area to accomplish that without drawing any undue attention to themselves and start another protracted pursuit. Maybe a few more beers, some food, and a little fooling around with this sexy feeling babe would also help his depressed funk for being in some new living type of Hell; on a planet where he didn't want to be, and one where he just didn't belong.

***scene break***

Karasuba stared down at a totally inebriated Haihane who was smiling and mumbling something to herself about a highly misleading pink backpack from Heaven. What used to be the body wrapped Indigo Sekirei of the Disciplinary Squad was now nakedly moaning, groaning, and slightly writhing in sensuous satisfaction on a mussed up bed in a cheap, mirrored Kabukichō love motel room with a large hot tub in one corner. Haihane's shaggy gray hair had been cut away from her forehead and teased into a mini Afro that quite frankly didn't look too bad on her. On the bed around her were scattered bags of new clothes that contained new, short, dark blue kimonos, blue lacy bras and panties, lightweight, dark blue footwear, two dozen long stemmed red roses, and what was labeled as some sort of video disk tutorial for Pekiti-Tirsia Kali blade fighting. Scattered on the motel bedroom floor were chopped pieces of what used to be body wrap bandages, a cut leather neck collar, and ripped apart combat boots. Haihane's clawed gauntlets were carelessly tossed into the mirrored bedroom's far corner. Karasuba bent over and slapped Haihane's face to bring the mumbling and smiling drunk Sekirei into a little more lucidity.

"Claws!" Karasuba snapped out impatiently while jerking her minion into sitting upright. "You were supposed to be searching this district for Logan! Not screwing around and getting drunk! Somebody had the manager of this dump call to come and get you! What you been doing?"

"Bossssss!" Haihane's bloodshot pale blue eyes tried to focus as her head weaved about limply. "Isshhh not, I mean, I wassss searcsssshing, an', an' I foun' 'im! Logan! Oh Bosssss! He ssschpanked my assss when we phhhought! An', an' then, he takesh me onna beefy an' noo, noo, noodle dinnerz date! Drinkin' beer an' then, an' then this phhhhhizzzy ssssham pain schtufff! Went sssschoppin' too! Phhhhhrizzzed my hair! An', an' then sssschoaked my sore asssh! Over there! Inna hot bath wisch Logan!"

"You took a bath with Logan after getting blind drunk?" Karasuba scowled in growing anger.

"Oh YEAH! An' we both got real horneee! Sssschuddden like! An', an' his hairy chesss tickles my nickles! I mean, tipples my nipples! HOT! SO HOT! An' then, an' then, OH BOSS! Heeessch BIG! SCHOOOOOOOOW BIG! WHOA! An' GOOD! WOW! But he woodent kisssssch me! An', an' he use a buncha rubbers not to wing me! Boss! He sssschaid he really liked me, Boss! Front, back, an', an' sssschideways! RINGADING Dinged me DEEEP! A LOT! WHOA! Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding! Dinga Dooo! SCHOOOOW HOT! He took my collar off too! Kissssching my neck! Sssschexy Boss! Sssschaid I wazzant a dog annny more, but a real ssssschweeet babe! An' then he left!"

Haihane then started a pitiful weeping while her head lolled around on her limp neck. She tried to bring her hands up to her eyes, but her palms couldn't find her face.

"He bought me clothezzz and flowerzzzz! Boss! Rozes! Nobody ever bought me flowerzzz, Boss! I'm a babe! An', an' I jusssch got phhhhizzzzed, phhhhhrrrizzzed, and phhh, phhh, phhhhocked! A LOT! WHOA! Was that Gooood! But not winged, an', an' now heeeesch gone! An' he broke my phoooooone! Howzsh? Howsch Lo-chan gonna call hizzz Assch Feather again? Sssschitttt! Am I in LOVE or, or WHAT? OHHHhhhhhhhh!"

With that last fading groan, weeping Haihane's eyes crossed, rolled up, and then she totally passed out.

"You dumb shit! What were doing trying to drink with that low life Logan?" Karasuba growled and then shook Haihane hard before letting go in total disgust. It may already be too late to save either of her squad members, but she'd at least have to try.

Karasuba gritted her teeth in determination to find and kill Logan to possibly save a reacting Haihane and the now badly hung over Benitsubasa from being winged by him. Haihane simply flopped spinelessly back on the love motel's bed; no longer weeping but once again slightly and smugly smiling in her afterglow of heavenly satisfied bliss.

***scene break***

"If you THINK, for one minute, that you're going to leave me in this living HELL one more night, then YOU better THINK again, you, you phony loser!"

The strident young female voice brought a beer buzzed and lightly dozing Logan full awake to up squint in the direction it had come. His view of her was greatly clouded by the light and heat still touting the stripping charms of "Ume, The Unfolding Flower of Fatale Femininity" despite its fatal blemish. Still greatly feeling the happy effects of his hard drinking and carousing with Haihane, all he could see was what appeared to be white silk banners writhing about in a weird semi imitation of Lady Hydra. This had to be the one Matsu described as Uzume. Sitting with his back braced against the back base of lopsided Ume's sign, Logan let his head fall back to thump on a thick cross support plank while heaving a sigh of fatalism.

"You Uzume?" Logan grimaced. Matsu had been right in her warning. Reacting Sekirei were not going to simply sit around and wait while he thought things over. Damn.

"I'm NOT Haihane, Lover Boy!" Uzume hissed between clenched teeth while balling her fists and stabbing them angrily onto her hips. "I'm NOT a scared to death Matsu or Akitsu, NOR a romance junkie like Kazehana! You've agreed to take responsibility already for me, and I don't give a damn you can't remember that now! That problem you had last night is obviously better now, so you either wing me right this instant or kill me! No more SCREWING around, no big bad macho excuses, no running off to make private calls and contacts, and no maybe you'll reject me or maybe you won't either! You try to run again, and I'll give you double the grief you're giving me before I croak!"

"It isn't that simple!" Logan growled in exasperation. Man, this one sounded worse than Viper, damned jealous too, and they weren't even hitched yet! "I don't belong on this planet! Or even in this time! I could disappear tomorrow!"

"I don't CARE! Where and when you came from is totally irrelevant, you old jerk! You're here, NOW, and I'm burning up! You or death are my ONLY options! You've got Akitsu curled up on the floor and mewling nonstop in terror and confusion! Matsu is hiding in her room bawling her eyes out thinking you MIGHT reject her, and Onee-chan is walking back and forth worrying herself into a total frazzle over you! Well I'm NOT a freaking puppet for you to jerk around while you go SCREWING around on your own and even SCREWING our enemies! Kiss me, or kill me! NOW!"

"HEY!" Logan sprang up in growing anger. "OLD? And I'm not jerking your chains! Nor am I a jerk! I DON'T KNOW YOU! All I know for sure is I woke up 7 hours ago on a roof getting kissed by an unknown alien female named Matsu! Now I KNOW I'm not on the right planet, and this ain't MY time! I don't know how I got here, and I'm gonna do my damnedest to find out how I did and get back to where I belong! Permanent attachments to beautiful young alien gals like you is the LAST thing I need here! I also know I've got a LOT of world firepower coming after my ass! Why in the hell should I let you gals get chopped up in the crossfire?"

"Hello? You listening? We're Sekirei! We Fight! It's what we do! We're REACTING to you! The very LEAST you could do is wing Kazehana and me to stop our damn reacting torture! Or just kill us first if you can't be bothered and don't want our help! If we're going to die with Matsu from you rejecting us anyway, then at least let us go out fighting together!"

"Hey, Miss Tactical Genius! Fighting together means in a group! In one place that ultimately can't be hidden, defended, nor supplied! Where one big bomb kills all of you, but not me! I'm not rejecting anyone! You all are just much better off as far away from me as you can get and hiding in the population of Tokyo and NOT tied to me in any way! That way none of you can be used as leverage to force me into bad options, and you'll live longer! Just let me do the fighting! I can take care of myself! And my way takes better care of you!"

"Oh RIGHT! Like you're going to have any brains for that tomorrow? You've been poisoned! And going in and out La La Land for over a week! You NEED our help and protection to get your Swiss cheese brain stabilized at Izumo Inn! A place we CAN defend thanks to Miya! Taking CARE of us huh? Like you just took CARE of Haihane by getting her drunk, screwing her, and then ditching her to come up here to feel sorry for yourself and mope in your beer, you heartless selfish bastard! Even SHE didn't deserve THAT, and I hate her guts!"

"She's NONE of your business!" Logan roared in defensive chagrin. Damn! Uzume had a sharp tongue! And lashing way too close to a few emotional moping sore spots. "What? You've been following me around? Spying? I told you guys to stay put! Anyway I happen to LIKE Haihane! Felt sorry for her, and gave her a little image boost! We had a great time together, AND I didn't have to bond with her to do it!"

"She's a SEKIREI, you stupid fool! You can't have a one time fling with us! She's a strong psychic! You screwed her brains even if you didn't physically wing her! When she sobers up she'll be reacting to you worse than I am now! If you've got one damn ounce of tender mercy in you, then just go back, do her a favor, and kill her now! You miserable, ignorant old jerk! If you NEEDED a good time in the sack then you should have just used Akitsu like you have been! You'd get your jollies, and she wouldn't be almost catatonic now! And for your pea brain's information, you've already GOT a huge permanent attachment here with Matsu! Be merciful, and just go kill her too! And Akitsu, Kazehana, and ME while you're at it! Matter of fact, I'd rather die than be bonded to an old, rotten heartless bastard like you anyway! YOU don't order me around, AND where I go is MY business!"

"Okay! Toots! Fine! Go your own way! Do your thing! I'm NOT going to kill you, but I DO have a say whether I WANT you, right? Hell, Haihane had a better attitude even when she was trying to kill me! And a hell of a lot better one now! Why can't you gals just go get another poor schmuck for your Ashikabi anyway? As beautiful as you look and smell you ought to do better than an OLD loser, miserable jerk, and heartless, Swiss cheese and pea brained bastard like me, right? Even with your juvenile name calling mouth and Viper attitude! Just WHY should I want YOU anyway?"

"Because I can FIGHT!" Uzume fumed while folding her arms under her bosom and looking away from him in her own self recriminating chagrin. Logan DID have a valid point about her too bitchy mouth and attitude, even if she wasn't normally like this in her own mind. She certainly wasn't upping her chances of getting bonded here. Why did she have to react so HARD to him? And WANT him? Toots? The nerve!

"Oh right, I forgot," Logan sighed sarcastically while giving her a cocked head once over with one eyebrow raised. Damn, despite just getting a real workout from Haihane, Uzume REALLY looked good in that brief, white silk, long boots, and waving veils outfit. "You have that soft silk attack thing going for you. Very impressive."

Logan only saw a white blur headed for his face, but, even surprised, he swayed sideways to make it miss. It was after the white silk cloth had snapped like a very loud pistol shot beside his left ear to make him wince badly in pain that he realized she hadn't even tried to slap his face. He quickly covered his ears when a second loud snap went off beside his right ear. It was almost like battling the hand clapping Hulk again except she was a lot closer than the big green dummy giving out the sonic booms, and hopefully she didn't have the big boy's strength to just rip him in half again. That had REALLY smarted, but this Uzume had somehow figured out his sensitive Wolverine hearing was a weakness. Damn. Then while his hands were up, she snapped him in the gonads, painfully snapped his nose to make his eyes instantly water, and then punched him in the guts with some kind of long and hardened silk lance. When he instinctively whirled to protect his nose, eyes, ears, guts, and nuts, she snapped his ass twice, the back of his head once, then raked a thin bloody slice across his exposed left Achilles heel as he tripped over his almost empty pink backpack.

"Lighter opponents I could grab and throw head first into a concrete wall," Uzume half sneered in a little gloating triumph, "which would probably improve your brain, but I already know I have to stand off and slice you to ribbons. If you didn't regenerate, you'd have been gutted already, or at least gelded and unable to walk. Now listen up, Pinky. Kazehana and I are reacting much too deeply to you to ever be winged by another Ashikabi! Just like Matsu! It really sucks, old man, but you are our only hope of staying alive now, in the near future, and in a miniscule chance for anything longer. IF I don't get killed protecting you from your stupid screwing around, IF we win the Sekirei Plan battles, and IF you don't go poof and disappear, then MAYBE I might have a chance to have a better life. Now, are you going to kiss me or kill me? Make up your damn mind right now and just save us both a lot of lousy grief in the future."

Logan turned and stood up, sighing in suddenly anger cooled resignation. He had to give Uzume credit even if he hadn't went into a killing, slashing rage on her which eventually would be no contest, the fact was that she COULD fight, fairly smart and efficiently too. Matter of fact, she looked like she was some weird combo of a ranged, Shaolin, nine chain whip fighter that also used some close combat fan/plum blossom techniques, both soft styles yet still very deadly, near, far, and mid range. Well, she had just spanked his ass as easily as he had Haihane's, even if Uzume had caught him flatfooted and a little drunk. He'd be ready the next time, but she had also taught him that old, old military adage. Never low rate or underestimate an opponent, ever, even one as beautiful, sexy, and saucy as Uzume. Now, if she'd just soften that cutting whip of a tongue and snapping temper a little too.

"Okay," Logan spread his arms slightly as an open invitation. She was no sexy reacting redhead, but Uzume was reacting, intensely so, and had been suffering for some time apparently. Might as well face it now rather than later, but it was going to be a very prickly union from now on, no doubt about it, and probably not too carefree at all. He might as well face something else. He might as well make moves for a long term future since he could be here for a long, long time, never to return home. Damn.

"Here I am, Toots. I'm not going anywhere soon, maybe not for a long, long time, however I can't promise that. You want to take your chances with that and have old PINKY here kiss you, come here, peacefully. If not, take your razor tongue and kiddie name calling act back to school."

Uzume did not dash forward. Instead, she stood frowning at his insistence for her to make the move to him. It was his declaration of primeval male independence in the presence of a too nagging and dominant acting female. Okay, he HAD moved to a position of letting her make the decision now, and if they were going to have any kind of Sekirei and Ashikabi life together, she too would have to move. And she WANTED him. With her eyes averted and head down slightly to let her head covering white veil hide the top of her face, Uzume took a few slow steps towards him across the roof. Her battle veils were waving in a highly agitated fashion. She was obviously not enjoying this as much as Matsu had.

When she got closer, Logan could see her full lips were compressed together as if she was trying her damnedest not to snap another sharp retort and/or insult at him. He stood still, letting her take her time. Hesitantly, without looking into his eyes and finally closing hers, her hot breath began coming in short pants. She had to bend her head slightly to kiss him as she was slightly taller. Her hands hesitantly clutched the front of his t-shirt and then grabbed hard as her whole body shuddered in rapidly mounting desire. Her fingers were hot too, as was the rest of her as she finally pressed close into him.

Involuntarily Logan's hands closed to grab her shivering buttocks and pull her closer as their lips softly touched, parted, and her tongue lightly slipped in to touch his. Then, moaning loudly and shuddering violently, she clamped her arms around him and tried to crush herself against his massive and heavily muscled chest. Her fingers dug hard into his shoulder blades as large, multiple white beams of light exploded from between hers. Her mouth and tongue were now writhing in their mashing insistence to almost devour his. Her right leg came up to curl around his thick left thigh as she started to grind against him. Logan, shifting his feet for a wider stance to take her weight, basically hung on as Uzume gyrated wildly against him for several long seconds. She finally reached a groaning emotional crest that made her body muscles lock up and a pink bird shaped crest form behind her back. It sank into her between her shoulder blades to mark her, and her huge wings of white light behind her began to slowly fade.

Uzume simply begin shivering to leave her clutching him weakly and then totally surrendering to his support of her entire weight. Her head lolled sideways to rest upon his right shoulder. Her arms dropped limply as did her right leg. Her chest started heaving with deep breaths to catch her breath and droplets of salty, water lily scented sweat began beading between her breasts. He felt her elevated body heat begin to cool a little. Her bonding to her Ashikabi was over, and it had been several orders of emotional intensity above Matsu's.

Logan squinted slightly in thought as he held her calming body, lightly stroking her back and shoulders in tender compassion. Damn. If that was the kind of emotional pressure she had been suffering under for a couple of days, then it was no wonder she had been so worked up and ready to be killed or cured now. This meant he would have to get to her also reacting friend, the wind user Kazehana, as quickly as possible so that she wouldn't suffer much longer, and probably poor Haihane too.

"Hey, kid," Logan whispered gently. "You were right. I was very ignorant of what you being a reacting Sekirei really meant, but I was only operating on a few hours of limited intel, not eight days. Sorry. Let's go so I can help Kazehana. We'll work everything else between us out later, okay? I guess I'll have to see Haihane again soon too."

After a short pause, he felt her give a couple of silent small nods in agreement into the hollow of his neck. She made no attempt to leave his total bracing support, but rested her weight against him in no hurry to part from him yet.

"I'm not a kid," Uzume sighed warmly into his neck as she brought her arms up to once again lightly embrace him, "and, and I'm sorry I called you old, and, and everything. I was getting pretty, ummm, desperate."

"You're, uhhh, probably always going to be a handful, right?" Logan stated more than asked. He could feel her still roiling emotions in their new psychic link. "You're one of those high wire types, ain't ya."

"Heh. Yeah, I guess, and we, uhhh, first met on the street down below this sign. It wasn't a very good start for us or since. You'd been out drinking with Karasuba and Akitsu, and, I'd been fighting other Sekirei, and, and, well..."

"Lots of insults and anger during a mutual attraction?" Logan tried to finish her pause.

"Wouldn't call it mutual," Uzume snickered while shaking her head slightly. The movement caused her long chestnut hair to tickle his nose. "You were a lot more interested in Kazehana at the time, and, well, I had fallen earlier in some alley garbage during a fight. Let's call it...very disturbing for me and meaningless for you. Things haven't been too smooth between us since, and, uhhh, kind of bipolar as you called it. I, I, wanted to bond with another girl Ashikabi before we met, and, and, well, your screwed up brain and, and my body, and my, uhhh, mixed warring emotions have kinda given us a lot of grief."

"Ya think us bonding is gonna make things better between us?" Logan asked hopefully and then sighed. A girl Ashikabi? Yep. Gonna be a very prickly union all right, in several ways. "Cut down on the grief at least?"

"Well, yeah, sure, hopefully, but if you're thinking of winging Haihane, that's gonna be a LOT of grief for all of us. She's on the Disciplinary Squad. No other Sekirei likes her except Karasuba, and she's gonna go raving bananas to kill Haihane AND you, which will kill Akitsu, Matsu, Kazehana, and me. It'd be better for everybody if we'd just go back to that love motel and kill Haihane now. It would put her out of her future reacting misery, and everyone else too."

"Nope," Logan said emphatically and felt her instantly stiffen. "I'm against cold blooded murder these days. I'm also totally against untrained kids fighting, let alone killing each other. It's why I started the Jean Grey Academy. We're not killing anyone unless we absolutely have to, Toots."

"I hate being called Toots, and kid," Uzume growled between her teeth that had sunk into the base of his neck and bit down hard enough to make her unhappiness at that nickname painfully clear. "And I HATE Haihane!"

"Okay, Uzume-san," Logan tensed his neck muscles against her bite, but simply endured it, and didn't flinch away. "But we're NOT killing Haihane. Can't ya at least give her a chance to grow on the rest of you gals reacting and bonded to me? Haihane's actually pretty laid back, level headed, got a good sense of humor, and a lot of fun to be around. I like her, matter of fact, I like her a lot. Who knows? Maybe you gals will too. I've been part of a lot of talented fighting teams in the past that started off hating each other and then got more tolerant if not friends later. Hell, even some long time enemies became allies. In the meantime, maybe I can have a little chat with Karasuba and calm her down too. You said we're drinking buddies, right? How about we invite her over for a few beers to, uhhh, Izumo Inn?"

"Ohhh, Logan-san," Uzume, relaxing her toothy grip, groaned softly in disgust. "There goes your ignorance thing again. Mark this down, and DON'T forget it! Miya and Karasuba are NOT beer buddies. We're talking mortal enemies, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," Logan shrugged in unconcern. Whoever or whatever Miya was, she could have her own space, no problem. He could always meet this Karasuba someplace else for a friendly chat. "And if you and the others just can't get along with Haihane, then I'll simply stay someplace with her away from Izumo Inn. There's no way I'm going to leave her unprotected since I'm the one that's put her in a bad spot."

Whatever Uzume's sharp and negative return to his announcement was going to be, and she instantly stiffened to give one, it was interrupted by Logan swiftly pulling her away from their embrace and shoving her protectively behind him. A group of four, southeast bound female Sekirei were rapidly leaping towards them across the Kabukichō District building roofs. Logan immediately bared his claws while crouching defensively. He focused his senses on the oncoming aliens for a few seconds. With a slight breeze blowing their scents to him, Logan identified Matsu's fresh pine smell mixed with two slightly different vanilla scents and one of fresh jasmine flowers. He could also see from their infrared shapes against the softly lit cloud cover of the Tokyo skyline background, the three females with Matsu were endowed with larger breasts than her and even Uzume. Once the four landed lightly on the opposite side of the roof, he saw that the three unknown Sekirei with Matsu were all incredibly beautiful too.

"My friend Matsu you know. Kazehana in purple," Uzume whispered from behind his right ear. "Akitsu with brown hair and self bonded forehead crest. Her twin sister Kochou has gray hair. Be very careful with Aki-chan, please? She's VERY powerful, but brain damaged."

Logan's first overall impressions of their facial expressions were of a totally unafraid Kochou coolly evaluating his fighting stance, massive muscles, long fist blades, and instinctive move to protect Uzume, as well as the cold experienced killer look she could see in his eyes. Matsu, standing well apart from Kochou and Akitsu, was lower lip chewing in rejection worry over her disobedience to what he had expressly told her to do in waiting at Izumo Inn. He would also soon find out it had been Matsu's plan for Uzume to follow Logan with Matsu's guidance through the constant tracking of and listening in on the specially modified phone he had borrowed from his redheaded Sekirei.

Her whole body shivering violently, Akitsu's features were a twisted study of trying to cope with her Sekirei instincts to protect her Ashikabi, his curt phone order to stay away from him, the conflict of his having her stay so close to bad people in a bad place, and total fear he would reject her for disobeying that order, especially after she had been informed hours earlier that her beloved Logan-chan had no memory of her. The taller, very full figured, and incredibly beautiful Kazehana was much more enigmatic, almost inscrutable, as her large and liquid dark eyes calmly fixed on his. The only thing that belied her inner tension was the fierce hand grip of mutual support that she was sharing with Akitsu. All in all, a very mixed bag of tempestuous worry, fear, mutual distrust, disharmony, maybe even hatred, uncertainty, interested intelligence, and possible genuine physical desire for him, as well as coldly calculating manipulation.

Logan's deep blue eyes swept over them more slowly in a silent and closer evaluation of his own. Since he was marooned here for now, he might as well make the best of things, especially since it was also readily apparent he was stuck in the middle of forming a Sekirei fighting team whether he wanted one or not. One question though. Were all Sekirei incredibly built heart breakers? Well no, Haihane, although no slouch in the body shape department, wasn't particularly beautiful, but she sure was a LOT of fun. Well then, aside from her, he currently seemed to have two very powerful and ranged elemental fighters in Akitsu and Kazehana, one already experienced in killing if he had read Kazehana's eyes correctly, and two very sharp, calculating, manipulative, and largely uncontrolled brain types that hated each others guts in Kochou and Matsu. He had one versatile yet highly temperamental, Shaolin soft style fighter in Uzume, friend of Matsu. Both Matsu and Uzume were already solidly crest bonded to him, no deposit and no return. Emotionally bonded to him Kochou and Akitsu were in very deep enmity versus bonded Matsu and Uzume. With the probably now reacting Haihane being hated by both sets, he already had a very unhappy three way Sekirei clique forming with Kazehana the only obvious bridge between them all and a possible healing glue as well. Not a great start, especially with the human firepower he was sure to be facing soon if old experiences on other worlds had taught him anything.

Ostensibly, these young alien bird gals were not like any experienced female mutant teams from his home planet by any means, nor apparently as super powerful either. Certainly not any five of a Psylocke, Jubilee, Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, Storm, Rogue, Dazzler, Polaris, Blink, Rachel Grey, Sage, Warbird, Wolfsbane, and a Domino X-crew. His current Sekirei probably wouldn't even be able to compete with any five of Hope Summers, Pixie, Idie, Blindfold, Surge, Monet St. Croix, Danger, Frenzy, Husk, or Dust either, let alone, say any five female Avengers combo made from Carol Danvers, She Hulk, Firestar, Hellcat, Jessica Drew, Wasp, Mockingbird, Black Widow and/or the Scarlet Witch. Hell, Wanda alone was enough to tear a new ass in a few omniverse hotspots or two. Been there, seen those headaches. Yeeesh. Matter of fact, he could probably put together a pretty decent planetary ass kicking crew from a mix of any five female mutant low lifes, bad goddess types, and otherwise confirmed outlaws from the likes of Chimera, Spiral, Lady Mastermind, Typhoid Mary, Poison, Red She Hulk, Titania, Black Cat, Martinique Jason, Ms. Sinister, Kay Cera Destine, Enchantress, Remus, and yes, the ever backstabbing but potent Mystique, damn her blue hide. The problem Logan had now was none of those more powerful and/or experienced fighting type gals from ye olde Earth 616, good, bad, and/or somewhere between, were here; wherever here was. He'd just have to work with what Sekirei power he had.

As things stood now, and with Tokyo cops, MBI, and multinational capture teams closing in, he could use another infighter or two like Elektra and maybe even little Armor to mix it up beside and behind him to protect the range fighters and brainy types. Haihane could certainly fill a slot, IF he could get her accepted by his already too prickly Sekirei birds. So, where to start, and not screw everything up from the get go? First, ramp down the most obvious tension.

"Aki-chan," Logan relaxed his claws and slowly stood up. He would start with the incredibly beautiful and stacked but brain damaged ice user who looked the most desperate and in need of more immediate emotional care than the others. He held out his hands about waist high. "Could I greet you first?"

Akitsu hurled herself in one leap forward with a drawn out whimper of relief. He braced himself just before she slammed into him while clutching her arms around him tightly. This hard grab added to her collision enough to drive his breath out of him in an explosive grunt. She began bawling and snuffling loudly into the exact same spot at the base of his neck and right shoulder where Uzume had left deep red teeth marks. Logan began making shushing noises, okays, and there, theres of understanding while lightly stroking her back and listening to her outpouring of her excruciating worry and aching love for him, her deep rejection fears, and her waiting agony amidst the dangers of bad people and bad places. Love Logan-chan! Would he forgive her for coming to him without his permission? Would he think his Aki-chan was perfect for him again? Love Logan-chan! Be perfect together just as before he fell in the street in great pain? Could she stay with him and never be separated again, ever? Bad people! Danger! And please, please please take her sister Kochou as his Sekirei too? Please? LOVE LOGAN-CHAN! From there Akitsu went into the loud, violently shuddering, and incoherent sobbing of a total meltdown. This Logan stopped by pulling Akitsu hard against him to drive her breath out and then deep kissing her until her body began jerking from lack of oxygen and not emotion.

"Perfect together," Logan whispered softly when he relented and stared warmly into her tear filled eyes. She blinked rapidly in heavy panting relief and joy before burying her face back into his neck to softly moan and kiss her emotional relief from his two words. Logan looked over her left shoulder at Kochou.

"You sure you want to be with me?" He asked simply. "I'm not from this planet or time, and there's nothing that says I won't disappear back to where I came from as sudden as I got here. Only fair to warn all four of you, but you, Kochou-san, you're not reacting. Can you even bond with an Ashikabi at all, or maybe even just weakly?"

"I'm not sure," Kochou truthfully returned with a small expression of pleased surprise. Akitsu's Ashikabi wasn't just another dumb cold hearted killer then. Interesting. She sent a quick glance of pure hatred at Matsu before continuing. "I was drugged as hard and as long as my sister in MBI's experiments on us, just differently. I can dull most of the pain and effects with alcohol, but I will NEVER be separated from her again, living or dying, regardless whether I can Sekirei bond with you successfully or not. I'm also not sure I have any real personal interest in you and I ever achieving any male/female love or even deep mutual happiness either, other than what it takes to make and keep Akitsu happy. I do have my talents that have already been and will continue to be very useful to you, while you provide protection and a much better possibility of her and I living a lot longer together as long as you're here. I'm essentially looking at us as having a mutually beneficial business arrangement for as long as we're on this planet together."

"Okay, but that will only happen," Logan cocked his head a little to return Kochou's cold gaze and then turned to give Matsu the same no nonsense look, "for a price. If you both want me as your Ashikabi, then you two will drop all hostilities and team up for our group's benefit ONLY, otherwise as CEO, I will CUT my losses in BOTH of you, no hesitation, no excuses, and no matter which one queers the deal from now on. You want to buy in? Together?"

Both Matsu and Kochou's eyes widened in sudden understanding and shock. Not only was Logan preempting any mutually exclusive plans for offense and defense against one another, he was also demanding that all personal goals of both brain types be abandoned if they didn't benefit everyone, including each other!

"You two better get together and give that a very big think," Logan added calmly before turning to Kazehana. "Then get back to me. You're, uhhh, you're my wind user, right? Kazehana-san Number 03?"

"Well, I'm not exactly yours, yet, Lo-chan," Kazehana returned with a tight knowing smile, but there was also a sudden seriousness in her eyes as she stood rigidly still and in control of her flushed and reacting body. "I mean, you sitting with a pink backpack under a sign advertising a one boobed stripper isn't what I'd call a great omen for our mutually romantic future, now is it? Besides, winging me is going to bring a lot of extra heat your way from other Ashikabi and their Sekirei teams, as well as from the world's military powers who have wanted me dead or captured for almost two decades. You wing Haihane as well, which we four came here to talk you out of doing, and all that combined grief is going to get exponentially hotter too. Oh, and I'm pretty much a confirmed drunk as well as a, ummm, very physically DEMANDING type of female. So, Lo-chan, are you sure you want me?"

Logan silently pursed his lips and gave her a very long head to toe look.

"What's not to want? But I've already made up my mind to do right by Haihane as well as let both of you crest bond with me if you want to. Waste of time trying to talk me out of helping Haihane if she starts suffering in reacting to me. I'm not an experienced harem nor an orgy guy either, so one on one bedroom time will be limited, and I'm always gonna be carrying safe sex protection from now on too. No babies, not for a long time if at all. Can you live with all that?"

"Mmmmm," a smiling, slit eyed, and deeply flushed Kazehana purred catlike, arched her back, and stretched a little as Logan suspected only she could do true justice to THAT inviting move. "Rage of a beast, soul of a samurai, and a very BIG, experienced, responsible, romantic lover that smells and tastes so yummy? Yes, I believe I can, for a price, CEO-kun."

Logan's face took on a suddenly distracted frown. A few seemingly unrelated blips and questions came to mind forceful enough to supplant Kazehana's sexy posturing for his attention. He had just gotten a small glitch of a lurking, clove smelling, white hot angry, and malevolent psychic presence added to his ongoing feelings of eerie wrongness that he had been experiencing since he had woke up. There was another even more malevolent and lilac scented presence also prowling the edges of his senses that was giving him a definite sixth sense of impending great danger. Who were they? How many unwinged Sekirei were still out there? Why had they all been released into the city so suddenly after years of protective cloister? Why HAD he been given a pink backpack by Matsu? And was there a small possibility that a very quirky, perhaps malevolent, and universe twisting Phoenix Force had a twisted sense of humor too? Or at least an unknown plan/desire for Wolverine to be forced into a totally new type of squabbling, competing, demanding, and fighting alien female harem; a living Hell on Earth? On the other hand, he blinked as his attention came back to focus on the stupefying beauty of Kazehana as well as Matsu, Kochou, Akitsu, and Uzume. He certainly wasn't in Hell or Purgatory, but maybe he was finally in new type of living Heaven after all?

Logan shook himself out of his unusual reverie to look back at his super attractive, wind user Sekirei.

"Your price, Kazehana-san? What is it?"

"My price, CEO-kun," Kazehana made a very seductive moue with her full red lips, "is a quiet and romantic roof top dinner for just the two of us with soft candle light and plenty of sake, followed by some all night star gazing together on an even softer futon beside the waterfalls in Shiba Park, and you singing your song to me again, the one called Starry Starry Nights."


	9. Chapter 9

**Starry Starry Nights**

**Chapter Nine – Ninth Night**

"Forever and ever, Lover-kun," Kazehana's big, smiling dark eyes sparkled from the city lights far below them. "The enchantment winds of my pact will blow away my Ashikabi's dark clouds."

"What?" Logan blinked in rare stupefied confusion. What had just happened? His suddenly disjointed mind tried to recover. Damn, what had she? Back to basics. Start there. Okay, he was James "Logan" Howlett, aka Wolverine, from, from where? That's right. Earth 616. He was now in Tokyo, or more precise, high over the Kabukichō District of Tokyo from some other future dimension, somehow tightly hugging to as bountiful, beautiful, and entirely bodacious young female alien rear end that Mother Nature could build; or whatever passed for Mother Nature on whatever planet had been her origin. She was Kazehana, an exotic off world transplant called a Sekirei from avian ancestry who had a front top side which was just as bodacious and a lower sexy pelvis hotly grinding into perhaps the hardest, aching, and biggest stiffy that Logan had ever achieved. Now that he thought about it, these Sekirei looked and felt a lot like the beautiful, bountiful, but deadly Ava'Dara the Shi'ar Warbird on some kind of sex steroids. Okay. So far so good, and now the old Swiss cheese brain was cooking.

Okay, this much he instantly knew, now what else could he, he, uhhh, damn, she felt great way up here! Hey. Wait. Hadn't he just been standing next to a sign advertising a one boobed stripper named Ume and thinking about his next moves and, then? There, right there, Kazehana, some kind of psychic powerhouse, had kissed him, that's right, and, and, then some crazy shit had started, HOT and crazy! Logan shook his head and squeezed his eyes open and shut a few times. Man, his head felt like it had been turned into a spinning kaleidoscope of colors, bright lights, and swirling sensations while he had the Father of all aching boners. He pulled his chin in to look down at what was so deliciously rubbing against his chest. Huh. No wonder rational thought was a little hard to come by here, let alone immediate future planning, but the sudden sounds of approaching helicopters from the west and sirens from every direction below finally pierced his fogged brain. Sirens? Incoming air? And without a doubt hostile because everybody and their brother had been chasing him earlier! Shit!

"Logan-chan! Bad Machines! Bad People coming!" A nearby female voice almost shrieked at him from his left. Logan tore his gaze away from Kazehana's more than ample and appealing bosom to swivel his head in the yelling female's direction. What? Another very busty, heart breaking beauty off the port bow? With a cold aura shimmering about her? And a silver haired clone hugging her tightly from behind? Dressed in a deep cleavage exposing white mini dress and trying to twist in midair to bring her crossed open palms down in a chopping motion, the front female's lips were pulled back in an almost feral snarl. Who was, oh, oh yeah, Akitsu and her twin sister Kochou, the first a cold user who was brain damaged somehow and very emotionally protective of, wait, what the hell did she mean bad...

"NO!" Logan shouted at her in alarm. Damn! This was not the time to escalate their situation without more recon and having current poor intel! "Akitsu! You can't kill! I need more..."

"AKI-CHAN! Fill their very hot places with ice! Nothing else!" Kazehana shouted next to Logan's super sensitive right ear. That made him yank his right hand off Kazehana's buttocks and clap it over the right side of his head while wincing in pain.

"DAMN! Babe! Don't yell in my ear! Put me down so I can fight these..."

"Relax, Stiffy-chan," Kazehana chuckled as she brought her legs up around his waist and locked her ankles behind him to squeeze him tightly to her with her long, strong legs. The action naturally hiked up the upper thigh high hem of her purple miniskirt and placed the front of her lacy matching thong underwear squarely against his aching manhood. She also took her right arm from around his neck and made a small gesture to somehow rotate them all in midair towards the incoming threats. Then she started small rotations of her hips that was making it REALLY hard for Logan to concentrate.

Tightly hugged by her twin, both still hovering in midair to Logan's left and now oriented for an offensive move, Akitsu obediently chopped her hands diagonally across her body. Her cold attack went at the six black helicopters marked with white MBI lettering perhaps a thousand feet or so above and approaching from the southwest. Logan could make out black figures poised for action in the aircraft's open side doors, but every machine's turbo jets were suddenly packed with ice. Engines instantly stalled, their pilots had no choice but to begin auto rotating for a landing while dark clad bodies tumbled out and into the air from every wounded helicopter. At first it seemed they had been tossed by their now jinking craft, but each falling figure quickly spread their arms and legs wide to reveal they were wearing some kind of advanced webbed suit that mimicked a flying squirrel. Suddenly deploying large nets between, pairs oriented themselves to dive down upon Logan and his floating Sekirei. Others snatched at short barreled weapons attached in some quick release fashion to their chest, obviously getting ready to shoot Logan and his females full of tranquilizing darts in passing before popping chutes for a safe landing

This was a state of the art aerial snatch attempt by very highly trained troops, Logan realized; one that was probably designed to originally catch their prey on the roof below, but instantly improvised for an aerial grab. It also must have cost a bundle of cash, he also thought while still wriggling to break free of Kazehana's tight, one armed, two legs locked around his waist, and loin rotating embrace. Dammit! Here he was getting the Mother of all aerial lap dances, but he HAD to drop onto the roof far below to get solid footing for fighting!

"Lover-kun, just hold me. I'm your Kazehana of the Wind now, remember?"

Logan stopped moving and just stared in silent admiration as Kazehana casually, almost languidly, gave the incoming skydivers and the auto rotating helicopters a backhanded wave of her right hand. A sudden, large, floral scented whirlwind sent the entire descending attack force into a swirling drift out over Tokyo Bay to the east. Soon the crippled machines ditched as their aerial troops began individually splashing down all around them. The Bay became an instant watery chaos of downed airmen trying to deploy emergency inflatable rafts from rapidly sinking helicopters, skydivers trying to shrug out of their chute harnesses while ditching hardware weighing them down, the Bay's normal entering and exiting shipping blaring their emergency horns, harbor police boats launching for rescue efforts, and a few unhappy and now scrambling fishermen trying not to get swamped or rammed while heading for their fishing pens. Some of the latter were simply standing in small boats and shaking their fists at all the commotions because they knew their night's catch had just took a big hit.

"Ummm, now where were we, Lover-chan?" Kazehana gurgled while swapping arms around his neck and using her left hand to guide his right palm back to clutching her once again thrusting and grinding backside.

Logan blinked while looking about them, still trying to get an overhaul handle on what had just happened to him, to all of them. Obviously, Kazehana's bonding kiss on the adult stripper club roof in Kabukichō below had just kicked his mental and emotional ass in a big way. Although, to be fair, his Johnson seemed pretty happy, yet, something wild had occurred even though initially and outwardly Kazehana's winging had seemed much more subdued than Matsu's and Uzume's. There hadn't been the immediate uncontrolled and almost spastic clutching with sexual heat like Matsu's bonding yesterday afternoon. Although there was now plenty of bonding heat developed between them, Kazehana's Sekirei bonding to Logan had almost been the opposite, smooth, controlled, yet promising plenty of fire to come. Nor had Kazehana's winging been like Uzume's emotionally charged and almost vampire like embrace of life saving desperation, but again, Logan was now feeling great emotion surging through Kazehana and himself as well.

Other bonding aspects of Kazehana's kiss had been the same as Matsu and Uzume. Huge wings of rose pink light had sprung forth and then curled to envelope her and Logan. A dark pink Sekirei crest had formed behind Kazehana and sank to emblazon itself on her back between her shoulder blades, and she had moaned softly while doing her best to swallow his tongue and vice versa. Then things had started going a wee tad different. Glimmering and fragrant petals of cherry blossoms had swirled around the roof on a sudden circular wind that had lifted Logan, Kazehana, and the other four Sekirei high into the air above Tokyo. Kochou, Akitsu, Matsu, and Uzume had all squealed, squeaked, and/or cried out in alarm as the red light district streets of Kabukichō had become a small, brightly lit grid below them. Actually, Logan hadn't even noticed his weightlessness until Akitsu had yelled.

"What, uhhh, what just happened to us, uhhh, Kaze-chan?" Logan asked cautiously, trying very hard not to ravage her soft red lips again until he better understood what had just taken place between them.

"Other than some unhappy swimming by our MBI visitors? Ummm, I just became your Sekirei, Lover-kun, Number 03, Kazehana of the Wind," she replied in the midst of breathing warmly and nibbling on the left side of his neck, "and you, Studly-chan, are now my Ashikabi, forever and ever. I have been winged. By you, to you, and, ummm, for you."

"Yeah, I gathered that, but, uhhh, your winging, it was different from the other two, uhhh, Matsu, and ummm, Uzume, way different. So what happened?"

"Well, I really can't say," Kazehana started licking and sticking her tongue in his left ear while cooing softly in delight. "I only get one shot at bonding with my Ashikabi, so, I'm newer at this than you. What happened was what happened. We're together, and, ummm, did you know you have the most beautiful blue eyes and big sexy muscles, especially, Ooooo, this one? Let's find a cozy bed now, okay? It's been a long night for us, and I feel a little sake celebration for us is in order before we, ummm, rest?"

"Uhhh, sure," Logan nodded agreeably while keeping an eye on the now increased scrambling rescue action out on Tokyo Bay as well as scanning the skies around them for any other attackers. "Akitsu said that I leased an apartment with her near the Asakusa Shrine. And I got a truck and motorcycle in a leased garage to work on for wheels around town. Can we head there like this, or should we get back down to Earth so we can't be so easily spotted and..."

"Up here like this would be more fun!" Kazehana began soft nibbling on his neck. "And deeply interesting. Don't you think Lo-chan?"

Logan, suddenly worried this hot dynamo was going to start looking for high cloud cover in order to join the Mile High Club, went silent as he and his five Sekirei suddenly tilted slightly and moved as one to the northeast on what felt like a very gentle, cherry blossom scented breeze. This kid was a damn fine wind user, he thought with approval, with a delicate yet deadly touch and finesse that possibly surpassed even Storm's. Gave a whole new meaning to the name Wind Rider too. Kazehana had some real psychic power packed inside that delicious feeling and looking body of hers, enough that he had also felt something else in her winging, something much deeper way down inside his mind and inner spirit.

Whereas Matsu and Uzume both had immediately established strong psychic links with him, say like the very highest internet broadband speed achievable, Kazehana's mind had simply integrated with his in some intrinsic fashion he had never experienced before. It wasn't exactly mutually merged telepathy because they weren't really exchanging thoughts, or even emotions, although there was plenty of mutually hot sexual desire coursing through both of them as they twirled together in the air high above the city. It was more like the attracting opposite poles of two bar magnets in their minds had simply and naturally aligned themselves and slammed together in some kind of dynamic fusion. With benefits.

As they all flew across the city, he was still entirely conscious of Kazehana's sweet jasmine smell now mixed with the scents of fragrant cherry blossoms as well as her long, strong legs, incredibly sexy derriere, ultra thin waist, huge warm breasts, and soft hot lips. She was also still simply immersing herself into the feel and smell of him, his burly muscled body, intoxicating manly scent, large throbbing manhood, and the fact that the depth and power of his Ashikabi mind and spirit were more far powerful and capable of love way beyond her wildest dreams. Her years of aching heart pain were over. Logan's internal alarm, however, was sending up giant red flags.

Man, these kids didn't have a clue as to what they were getting into by just being around him, let alone bonded. Getting any closer to them emotionally now was a very bad idea and would just make things a whole lot tougher later when they would have to part ways. This was not his world. He had already made one big mistake with Haihane. Also, he was a killer and a death magnet, especially to all who had ever meant anything to him, always had been, and there was no hope of that ever changing. Fighting, blood, and red rage had been the one constant in his life. These Sekirei kids deserved a chance to live, free of him, and free from being exploited and hunted for the rest of their lives. Somehow, before he went back to Earth 616, he was gonna have to correct their current situation to give them that chance. And keep his damn fly zipped up while doing it.

"Hey! Kazehana! I've got dibs! I winged him first! Besides, you need these!" Matsu called from Kazehana and Logan's right. They both turned to see the red haired Sekirei leeringly wave a connected strip of twelve, x-large, purple foil wrapped condoms.

"I'm afraid she's right, Babe!" Logan nodded firmly. Got to show some resolve here, Skippy, he admonished his nether regions. "No baby making! And get your fingers off my zipper!"

"Oh fudge!" Kazehana pouted prettily and totally ignored his command while using her free hand to make a quick swipe at the nearby waving purple packs of penile protection. She missed, but went for a back hand return and missed again.

Matsu suddenly jerked her flapping twelve pack back. She quickly tucked them into her kimono's deep cleavage in order to snag her vibrating phone from a large front pocket of her split sided white kimono; a supposed covering garment that was doing very little to cover any of her voluptuous assets in the group's wind driven progress. After listening and then speaking hurriedly into her phone, she called to Kazehana again, only this time frowning with concern and no condom teasing.

"It's Homura! After coming back from a visit to Takehito's grave, Miya dressed in her old S Squad uniform and sword and left several hours ago without a word, and hasn't returned! And she's not answering her phone either! Homura's all alone at Izumo Inn and now surrounded by Mutsu and the other five of Hayato Mikogami's Sekirei! They're demanding that Homura come out and get winged by the Ashikabi of the South, or they're going to break in and take Homura by force! Seo and the Lightning Twins are on their way to help, but haven't arrived yet! Homura needs us there now! We have to go protect the Inn and my computers too! And, and that other thing!"

"BAD PLACE, Logan-chan!" Akitsu yelped in alarm as her cold aura widened greatly about her and her twin. "Bad Person there! Mutsu bad! Miya very BAD too!"

"We HAVE to protect those computers!" Kochou yelled over her sister's shoulders to add to Matsu's warning and urgency as well as convince Akitsu to calm down. "Miya's gone! There's no danger to us now!"

"Oh shit!" Uzume exclaimed from somewhere below Logan. "Logan-san! We can't let them have that jinki!"

Damn! Logan clenched his jaw and gave a small snarl of frustration. He really didn't want to just drop into any confrontation without scouting it out first. He twisted his torso and head to look down at Uzume. Whoa! Mother McCreedy! The top straps on Uzume's white veiled battle outfit had surrendered to the laws of wind resistance physics and let her twin jutting beauties fly free in the breeze. As if it wasn't already hard enough to concentrate now, Logan silently groaned to himself. And what in the name of delicious topless indecency was a jinki? Snap out of it dummy! Ain't you supposed to be a hardened warrior? One who has seen a few really nice naked tits, some even in battle? Remember the time Lorna Dane's outfit got shredded in Kentucky when fighting the...Damn! Concentrate! Make a decision here and remember Polaris' nice jugs later!

"All right!" Logan finally shouted and nodded while tearing his gaze away from Uzume's spectacular freedom and turning so that his other Sekirei could hear him. "All right, we'll go there first! Kazehana, tell me what you know about Mutsu and these others as well as this Inn's layout before we get there."

"Ohhh, yessssss!" Kazehana exhaled delightedly into Logan's right ear. "And Lo-chan, after we deal with Mutsu and with Miya gone, we can take a nice, long hot bath together! Or yes! Go to Shiba Park and pretend we are together at Jasmine Falls like you promised!"

Now that, Logan immediately realized, could NOT be allowed to happen and was a promise that had to be broken. He could not remain and get even deeper attached to these Sekirei on this planet. Not and be fair to them. It would surely get them killed as it had every female he had ever loved or even fondly involved. The more emotionally entrenched Kazehana became in her mind to him, the tougher it would be to sever her Sekirei psychic bonding to him without killing her. Already he could sense it might take telepaths Emma Frost, Rachel Grey, Psylocke, and maybe even Monet St. Croix and the Stepford Cuckoos all working together to accomplish the delicate mental surgery and separation. With a great effort deep within him, Logan sought and found his Bushido center. It was time for him to really follow the way of the warrior to save these five Sekirei from the death that always followed him.

Logan pulled his head back and looked into Kazehana's eyes with a sudden coldness that sent a very unhappy shiver through her. A smooth black ball of hardness shielded his mind at the same time to make her frown in wounded dismay. Somehow he had put up an impenetrable psychic wall between them. Why? What was wrong? Hadn't she and Aki-chan done well to disperse their enemies without killing them? And why had his wonderfully big and exciting manhood suddenly went half soft? Was he, was he going to reject her? Or maybe even all of them?

"I know you got that forever and ever thing going down deep in you, kid," Logan said softly, trying to assuage the hurt in Kazehana's suddenly teary eyes. "And right now you're one helluva hot argument for eternal nude bathing, as well as everything that goes with it at any Jasmine Falls, but life just ain't that easy, especially with me. As soon as we can, we're all gonna have a long sit down talk about the future; one where you Sekirei could live happy and free."

"Free? Lo-chan, no way!" Kazehana returned in a fierce tone. "I will NEVER be free of you, and you will NEVER be free of me!"

Kazehana put her head beside his and stopped moving her hips as she hugged him even tighter to her with her arms and legs to emphasize her words. As she increased the localized wind pressure about their group to speed them all much faster towards Izumo Inn and Homura's succor, her instant tears of dismay and disappointment quickly turned into fierce watery jewels of determination that were whipped away behind them. The glittering light grids of the Asian mega city below them and even the many moving lights out on Tokyo Bay in the distance started to blur. The now roaring air flowing past Logan's ears kept him from hearing Kazehana's equally determined whispering into the winds she so deftly commanded.

"Forever and ever, my Love, forever and ever and ever."

***scene break***

"Kiss me, Lo-chan, kiss me forever," Haihane almost incoherently moaned in her drunken sleep "Don't leave, Old Man. Do me again, ohhhh, oh yeah, right there. Just like that, big sugar."

Karasuba clamped her jaws together so tight it made her teeth ache as she stared angrily down at her former squad mate on the bed. MBI's doctors had already put Benitsubasa into a drug induced and cold bath encased coma in her apartment suite. That was to keep the Crimson Sekirei from tearing down her bedroom walls and even the entire apartment building, fleeing MBI to begin searching, and worse, finding Logan to wing her short and slender, blazing hot body. As soon as enough blood alcohol had been neutralized in Haihane's system to safely allow it, the same procedure would be done to her.

Meanwhile Karasuba and Number 55 Saki would now be doing twelve hours on and twelve off until replacements could be put on the Disciplinary Squad. The bloodthirsty and sadistic little shit Number 13 Amebane had already eagerly agreed to join and was going to be released early from MBI's labs, perhaps in a day or two following the slender male Sekirei's last adjustment. He was a hand to hand combat type similar in skills and power to Benitsubasa, but Karasuba could already see she would have to teach him a few manners when it came to his lousy superior attitude towards females in general. For Haihane's replacement, MBI was leaning towards the twin sword fighter Number 19 Ikki who had excellent skills and trained hard, however she and Karasuba had never gotten along all that well. Or hated each others guts actually. Perhaps feisty and dogged Number 28 Natsuka who fought with chain linked twin daggers might be a better choice.

Or hell, Karasuba made a sour grimace, maybe both new gals would be needed the way Logan was fucking things up in this town. And how in the name of his manly and exciting leather smell had the old bastard gotten his psychic claws into Benitsubasa? From as far as anyone could tell, Flatty had never even met him, let alone gotten the same hot love hotel treatment that had screwed Haihane so far sideways. That whole destroyed clinic and drunken mob investigation story about Benitsubasa sounded pretty damn fishy too. The little pink haired dynamo had never given a single damn about maintaining civil law and order in Tokyo, only who she could beat into a bloody pulp as often as possible. Not that it mattered now. As it was and once stabilized, both Haihane and Benitsubasa were going back down into MBI's labs for either more adjustments and/or bonding reaction experimentation. Karasuba sighed. There wouldn't be a whole lot of hope they'd make it back to be released in the next few weeks with others or even survive; probably much slimmer chances either would return to the Disciplinary Squad. Damn that sexed up pain in the ass Logan!

Screw it, Karasuba impulsively decided in rising hot anger. Saki would just have to do a few extra hours of guard duty up on the roof until Ikki and Natsuka could be outfitted and briefed to join the guard rotation of MBI's compound. As soon as she got some sleep and ate, Karasuba was going hunting. And stay at until that musclebound bastard Logan got his long claws clipped and shoved deep into his smiling blue eyes before she lopped his damn fool head off. The sexy sonofabitch was just gonna have to be put out of her misery. Then they all could get back to proper killing in the Sekirei Plan.

With that decided, Karasuba spun on one heel to make her long cloak flare out and swirl around her. She walked purposely towards Haihane's bedroom door, thumbing her phone to inform Minaka what she was going to do. The suite's front door slammed behind her as she stalked down the hall toward the elevators up to her penthouse suite's bedroom and a long hot bath to relax before going to bed. Better take some sleep pills this time too. For some reason she hadn't been sleeping all that well lately. And right there was another reason that smiling sexy bastard Logan had to die!

Only a few minutes later, Haihane rolled over and blearily fell out of bed. She weaved unsteadily on all fours, trying to orient herself to where she was and why she was feeling so damn hot. She was also weirdly feeling that she and Benitsubasa were both in extreme danger. Both of them, the sudden certainty blazed through Haihane's whirling thoughts, both she and Benny had to get away from here and hide until, until, shit! Her head hurt! Hide until her head quit hurting. And her stomach felt, hold it! Aggghhh! Mount Asama Barfarama again! Yahhhh! Guuuughhh! Oh shit. Damn that tastes bad. Smells worse. Oh shit. Gotta get outta here! Get Benny and get the fuck outta here before, before, whatever bad was coming could get to them. Karasuba. Karasuba and Minaka were gonna have them killed for reacting to Logan. Oh, oh yeah. Damn! The Old Man with the sexy claws and big dick had really gotten to her! Must have really pounded Benny too. Get out. Get out now. Hide. Leave their phones so as not to be traced. Can't use MBI cards either. Got to get somewhere cold too. Need cold. Rest. Cool down. Get sober. Then, when we can, find Logan. Must find Logan. And don't eat another damn thing for at least a week!

Haihane swung her head to dizzily look around her and down at herself. She was wearing some kind of short dark blue kimono. Huh. No panties. Screw it. Didn't need to waste time finding any either. There was a pair of blue sneakers tossed a few steps away from the bed. Shoes she needed. Her claws in their back carrying harness were leaning against the wall beside the door. Needed them too. Crawling on all fours, Haihane made it to her shoes without vomiting again. She moved to sit cross legged like a little child learning how to put on and tie her shoes. The action of sitting made her head spin more, and she had to pause, holding her head until the room quit revolving around her. Once it stopped, she felt slightly better, lightheaded still, but at least a little more rational. Huh. And she had laughed at Karasuba's misery. The maids were gonna really be pissed at another barf mess on the bedroom carpet. So? What did she care? Ain't coming back here, ever. Got no life without Logan.

Once her shoes were fumbled on, more or less, Haihane made a big effort to stand up and get her weapons slung onto her back. She wobbled out into her suite's living area after pausing with one eye closed, listening, and peeking around her open bedroom door to make sure her suite was empty. Opening her entrance door slowly, she peered both ways down the apartment building's empty hallway. Karasuba lived in the top penthouse suite one floor above. Benny's door was down the hall to Haihane's left. And was that a guard sitting and snoozing on a chair? Nuts. Might be one or two inside Benny's suite of rooms too. Okay, punch the sleeping guy out and then knock. Whoever opened the door got punched out too.

Two knocked out guards and a few minutes later, Haihane began tip toeing/staggering down flight after flight of the apartment building's emergency stairwell with a naked and unconscious Benitsubasa draped over her left shoulder. Damn, Haihane swore under breath when she came to the ground floor door and paused to think as clearly as she could. Once opened, alarms would sound and lights would flash on the building's first floor security console. She had to pick a direction to jump as soon as she went out. Saki had to be up at Logan's old vantage spot on the skyscraper roof across from the MBI compound's front entrance. Okay, go left out the door. Jump over the front entrance, but stay low after that. Keep the apartment buildings between her and Saki's line of sight. Saki's rooftop post had a narrow blind spot along the compound's south perimeter wall. Jump over and out there and go, go, where? Someplace with lots of hiding places and cold. Waterfront. Waterfront warehouses along Tokyo Bay where the daily catch of fresh fish from the Bay's fish farm pens was salted and iced. Find a place there somewhere to hide and cool them both down. Okay. That's it. Wait. Puke again first. Aggghhh! Oh shit. Whoa. Never fucking again.

Just before Haihane went to push the exit door open, she paused again. Who was she kidding? As soon as she could, she was gonna get a case of beer, Logan's favorite which was, Molson, right? And a box of those big damn cigars. The she was gonna find him, find him and beg him to do her again, beer, smokes, soaks, and hot sex, hot sex with bonding kisses this time. Benny could make her own pitch to get winged by him however she wanted, but the Old Man already proved that he loved beer, cigars, hot tubs, and even hotter naked babes. One of those babes was gonna be Haihane from now on, if he'd have her, and hopefully forever and ever.

***scene break***

"The only thing forever and ever here, Bub," Logan blew a puff of blue cigar smoke into a very angry and yet very wary Mutsu's face, "is the fact that you bonding to this spoiled teen idiot looking like a girly boy here was a fucking dumb move on your part. Especially if you really wanted to win any battles in that even dumber Sekirei Plan, let alone the whole damn thing. What in the hell were you thinking?"

"I made the calculation that a successful campaign to win was going to need large magnitudes of money," Mutsu scowled at Logan's crude, condescending tone and language, "as well as a malleable Ashikabi that was strong enough in psychic power to wing me and enough other Sekirei to become as formidable a fighting team as possible."

"Oh, so you're a calculating genius, huh?" Logan chuffed out another cloud of cigar smoke in disgust. He jabbed his right fist harder up under Hayato Mikogami's chin. The teen boy's head was pinned to Izumo Inn's wooden door by two metal claws on either side of his trembling lower jaw. "And you've really thought this whole MBI fight gig through in great depth? Uhhh, Mutsu, wasn't it? Look, dumb ass, did you ever consider that if there can only be one Sekirei Plan battle winner, that means sooner or later your so called team will be trying to kill each other and you too? Matter of fact, have you even asked yourself why you're being made to fight at all? Why would MBI raise alien eggs and embryos with a very great expense of time, money, and effort, fending off all kinds of attacks from around the world while doing so, just to have them kill each other now? Is that even logical, or are there some really nasty hidden reasons behind it? Ones that maybe you need to know about before risking your neck in a damn, dumb sounding game. What you gonna get if you do win anyway? Better yet, how long do you think you're gonna keep whatever the first prize is if it ain't a quick trip to some other planet?"

"Logan-chan!" Akitsu almost shouted in urgency from the stone walkway in front of Izumo Inn's porch, her imploring hands reaching out towards him. Face flushed a deep red, she was in agony from being told not to help him. "Please let me help you! You're badly hurt! You're bleeding! I can FEEL how much pain you have!"

"Relax, Aki-chan." Logan, without taking his eyes away from Mutsu, almost scowled as he waved his off hand back at her to stay away. "I'm making a point to our genius here. Now Mutsu, let's say you don't even fight in the Sekirei Plan. Nobody does and nobody dies. There's only a hundred or so of you Sekirei guys alive now, right? Now let's estimate there's seven plus billion HUMANS on this planet, maybe more. On the planet I came from there were over two million mutants with multiple super powers that are better than the ones you Sekirei have. Humans slaughtered us almost to extinction. A couple of times. Now here on this Earth, they of course want your Sekirei ship to study, reverse engineer, and copy. Understandable. They also want your other advanced alien technology, maybe even some Sekirei genes to experiment with for themselves too. I've already been offered some damn big bucks to snag and deliver a Sekirei of any age to the Americans for lab rat study. And that's just the Yanks. The Russians, Chinese, Hindi, and every other military power on this rock is gonna try for the same. Now they all might keep a few captured Sekirei alive for a while for research, but they sure ain't gonna tolerate any aliens running around loose fucking and breeding their sons and daughters like you're in some kind of fairy tale romances. Humans talk a good game when it comes to racial tolerance and shit, but trust me, it ain't there, bub.

"Humans ain't dumb either. They've had almost twenty years to study ways to take you birds down permanently, and at least either enslave you or just kick your sorry asses off this planet. They'll engineer killing diseases specific for Sekirei. They'll build big ass killer robots to match or neutralize your powers and even sniff you out if you try to hide. They'll separate you into small groups, pick you off one by one until you finally look around, yank your head out of your ass, and think about going back to wherever in the hell you come from in a very serious way. If all else fails, they'll nuke your asses. Meantime, this dumb young shit here with megabucks is gonna be real busy trying to save his own swishy little ass, and to hell with yours. Look, bub, bottom line here. You ain't got time to fight other Sekirei and their Ashikabi. You just tried as best you could to kill only me, and now you know you can't. That means you can't win that damn Sekirei Plan now, don't it? Look at yourself now. There you are kicked too far away, staring at your useless sword sticking out of me, and no way to get to it without me chopping off both your arms or just gutting you. You're also bonded to Junior here, and if I pop my middle claw, he dies, and you and your big bad team of half frozen cuties standing over there and pissing themselves are gonna die? Son, a calculating genius you ain't."

"Lo-chan," Kazehana began while biting hard her on the knuckles of her left hand in worry and fear. "I can FEEL you are in pain too! Please let us help you!"

"Not yet, babe," Logan sighed without turning to look at her. "I'm using this as a teachable moment for you all as well as our too ambitious and ignorant little pals here."

"Teachable moment my ass!" Uzume fumed under her breath. "You're driving us CRAZY!"

"It's amazing!" Matsu breathed in awe as she watched her Ashikabi stand and chat on the Inn's porch as if it was just another social visit of dubious friendliness. Logan's healing powers were way beyond anything Matsu had imagined! She couldn't wait to get to her computers inside the Inn and calculate precisely what they were! And analyze his fighting speeds and moves captured on her video feeds that she had covering the Inn inside and out.

"It's freaking WEIRD is what it is!" Homura complained weakly while staring at the macabre scene several yards away from her/him and yet trying to look manly in his/her slightly too tight black silk pajamas. How does a guy like Logan stand and chat like that with a sword poked clear through his chest? And like it wasn't even there although it had to HURT!

"We only came here to buy Number 07 Akitsu from you!" The young Mikogami finally found his voice even if it quivered and squeaked a little in extreme nervousness and fear. "And maybe wing Homura! We didn't come to kill anyone!"

"You're a moron," Logan gave Mutsu a weary look with one eyebrow raised in a "see I told you so" expression. "Do I look like the kind of guy that runs a flea market for second hand Sekirei? Where's your brains, boy? You came here not really knowing a damn thing about me. Bad strategy. Sun Tsu must be spinning in his grave at the way you need a little military training and help just to survive this entire Sekirei Plan thing. If anything you both need a damn babysitter. Now I ain't got a real good handle on the whole situation here in this planet's Tokyo, but when I do, you can bet your sorry asses, you and your mewling little team of Sekirei ain't gonna be very high on my list of priorities to help, even less if you keep screwing around in my part of town. I suggest you hike your butts back home and stay there. Don't let me catch you out hunting for trouble or for more Sekirei to buy or wing by force either. Play time is over. Got it Mutsu?"

"I'm well aware that we are now operating under a new paradigm with added unfavorable parameters," Mutsu cleared his throat before answering stiffly. "At this time."

"Okay, you still got hopes," Logan nodded charitably and then pointed his chin down at the sword sticking out of the left side of his torso just below his ribs. "I can respect fighting spirit even if it is misplaced. Pull your sword out, and remember I could have very easily chopped your Ashikabi's head off instead of just pinning your boy lover's throat against the door. You got great speed and strength in your swordplay, but now you know stabbing me instead of keeping your distance and slashing will get you killed real quick. Your lines of attack are a little sloppy too. You're also lucky I didn't let Akitsu simply kill you all like she wanted to while we were looking things over from above, let alone let her, Kazehana, and Uzume triple team you clowns when we landed. Stay away from Izumo. Stay away from Homura. Or else I pay your Achilles heel young moron here a little visit and remove your hopes and his skull from his neck."

"I will see that your terms will be adhered to," Mutsu compressed his lips together as he grasped his sword's handle and gingerly tugged it free from Logan's muscled body. The big male Sekirei was well aware that Logan's dual claw speed and superior fighting techniques had easily been a match for Mutsu's swordplay, and that Logan had deliberately allowed himself to be stabbed to demonstrate his healing factor. Now why? Why let an unknown advantage like that be revealed to an adversary? Mutsu carefully wiped his bloody sword using the long orange scarf hanging from his neck. He cocked his head sideways in speculation while looking into Logan's cold blue eyes.

"Why did you attack so suddenly upon arrival? We had not made any aggressive moves and were obviously here to negotiate."

"There will be no negotiations on my group's turf, ever, and I didn't want anyone to get killed. Used the element of surprise to separate you from your other Sekirei by having Akitsu freeze their legs while I kept you busy. Then took away your weapon as well as any further thoughts of resistance while I let you know Izumo Inn, Homura, and the north side of Tokyo are now off limits. Also let you know I mean business and can back it up by myself and without my Sekirei getting involved. That way they don't become a target for anything other than kidnapping to get to me. I'm pretty sure they can defend themselves against being snatched anyway."

"I see, interesting. So sure of yourself and aggressive because you don't fear death?"

"I follow the way of the warrior," Logan shrugged and turned to look directly into Kazehana's eyes. His unspoken message was clear. She needed to listen well here."The secret of life is in death. We're all gonna die, so life is simple when you accept that fact. Each act you do could be your last and leaves no room for doubts or regrets. A warrior has to be hard, accepting responsibility for his choices while not clinging to anything that exists only in his mind to make him soft. I have no interest in staying entangled in the affairs of this planet any longer than it takes me to insure the Sekirei bonded to me won't suffer when I leave. I want no one hurt or killed because of me while I'm on this Earth that isn't my home. Nor am I interested in killing anyone, let alone winning MBI's suspicious battle game. Okay, it's time you interlopers take a hike. It's been a long night. My ladies need to rest. I got other things I want to think about."

Seconds after Logan stepped back and Akitsu had vanished the block ice binding the legs of the other invading Sekirei, Mutsu snagged his Ashikabi around the waist, bounded into the air with their whole flock, and headed south. Akitsu instantly flung herself forward to fall on her knees before her Ashikabi. Her fingers frantically tugged his shirt up to examine his wound, except there wasn't one, only a large swath of his blood that had soaked his shirt and the top of his jeans. Now weeping hysterically, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged the left side of her face into his bloody but otherwise unmarked torso, clinging hard in gut wrenching relief. Sighing and shaking his head, Logan reached down to take her head in his hands and turn her eyes to his. As he touched her forehead he almost jerked back. Akitsu was burning up!

"Hey! Look! The crest on Akitsu's forehead has disappeared!" Homura, oddly only a few seconds behind in examining Logan's chest, was now pushing the front bangs of Akitsu's hair aside more than Logan had just done. Kneeling beside her, he/she was swiveling his open mouthed face up to gape at Logan and back down to peer closely at Akitsu's forehead and back up again. A heartbeat later he was joined by a much more concerned Kochou.

"The blood transfusion!" The kneeling Kochou exclaimed in a hushed whisper while looking around with a vacant gaze of understanding. "Her false winging has been healed by Logan's blood and now she's reacting to him properly!"

"What?" Logan blinked uncertainly. He shuffled his legs slightly to maintain his balance while cradling the still weeping Akitsu's head. "What transfusion? What the hell you talking about?"

Kazehana, Kochou, and Uzume all three began a simultaneous explanation, but whatever they were going to say went by the wayside. Trying weakly to raise up and hug Logan in loving comfort, Akitsu turned her face into Logan's blood covered lower torso, her lips swiped through his now sticky body fluid, her tongue instinctively went out to wet and wipe her lips free, and to a reacting Sekirei, DNA is where you find it. Half raised to her feet, giant, intensely sparkling, and "almost too bright to watch" wings of white light sprung from Akitsu's back. She moaned and clutched weakly at Logan's torso to keep from falling backwards when the dark pink Sekirei crest formed behind her shoulder blades and sank down to imprint itself on her skin between them. Instinctively she again began clawing her way up Logan's body to seek his mouth with hers.

Logan jerked back in frowning surprise to evade her bloody kiss, but he quickly found out Akitsu was a helluva lot stronger than she looked. Her hands caught him behind his head, jerked him forward to mash her open mouth against his, jammed her writhing, now salty tasting tongue around his, and hung on. The light in her already too bright wings intensified and a thick frost literally began to engulf everything and everyone within a two block radius of Izumo Inn.

For his part Logan simply hung on too, looking over Akitsu's left shoulder at a highly amused and frosted Kazehana, nodding her head in a "see, I told you so manner." Her expression was a direct result of them both feeling Akitsu's psychic dipole also aligning itself with his mind and slamming in place directly opposite of Kazehana's.

"That's right, Aki-chan! Get you some girl!" Although feeling a little jealous that Logan hadn't kissed her back the way he was kissing Akitsu, Uzume still gave a fist pumping cheer while shaking the frost from her long hair.

Crap! Logan thought in dismay, his thought processes whirling in almost the same confusion as what had happened high above Tokyo earlier with Kazehana. This was not what he wanted, but damn Akitsu kissed good! Felt even better in trying to mash her chest to his and grind her loins against him in unabated heat. Then she pulled her head back, panting with her eyes closed in total ecstasy. And if Logan had any remaining doubts about Akitsu's initial murderous intent when confronted by their armed aerial attackers earlier, her bonding pledge erased them.

"By the cold of my vows, I will DESTROY the enemies of my Ashikabi!" The next words came out as what only could be describes as a snarling hiss. "FOREVER and EVER!

***scene break***

Forever and ever, Lover-kun, kept running through the back of Logan's mind as he tried to concentrate on what he was doing. Besides totally strange but hot alien babes throwing themselves at him at every opportunity, bonding "in LOVE forever and ever" for Pete's sakes, there's was something really too weird and maybe even rotten here in Tokyo. Logan scowled as he eyed his progress on replacing a seal in his old truck's rear axle. Last night had been a long night, and today even longer. And there was only so much a guy trying his damnedest to follow the hard way of the warrior could take. Or get any rest from either.

Between Akitsu literally carrying him into Izumo Inn's bath, forcefully cleaning him up, and his clothes getting stolen in order "to wash them", he had spent the last three hours of the previous tumultuous night naked. Then when Mister Stiffy just HAD to respond to Akitsu's tender washing techniques, she had just as forcefully booted her other four gawking female cohorts out of the bath, bolted the door, and, well, attacked maybe wasn't the exact word, but the results of her demanding "NOW!" were the same. Of course he had manfully resisted as any true hardened warrior should and would, but, okay, so he had been weak in will and not so weak elsewhere. It wasn't long until he actually thought the poor kid was gonna multiple orgasm herself into some kind of forever and ever coma while wringing his traitorous gonads dry.

Then Kazehana and Matsu had sternly, not taking no for answer, confronted him in the hallway as he was carrying a contented and sleeping Akitsu upstairs to a bedroom. Their main point being if he, now obviously deflated, was going to be an HONORABLE warrior, then he damn well better keep his promises, first to Matsu carrying her gross box of condoms, and then when recovered, to Kazehana for her all night tryst with him alone beside Shiba Park's waterfalls. Carrying a naked, sleeping, and smiling Akitsu had also been a very poor argument in trying to renege on his previous promises to both of them. However, the two narrow eyed Sekirei had conceded that Kochou's demand for a healing blood transfusion did take precedent, but only for today, and he should be on dialysis for three hours anyway. Once healed, if in fact it actually worked, then Logan was pretty sure Kochou was going to pretty much attack the way her twin sister had just done. So much for the "no deeper involvement than necessary" self pledge in the way of the warrior, dammit.

The only half way positive effort in trying to remain as aloof from his Sekirei as he could had been Uzume, at first. Then during Logan's dialysis and transfusion session, Miss Seemingly Uncaring Uzume had begun an in depth interrogation of his past history, especially concentrating on every female he had ever been involved with and the outcome of each relationship. It was a thorough grilling that would have made a WW II Gestapo commander envious with note recording Matsu, Kochou, and Kazehana all asking very pointed questions to fill in whatever little blanks Uzume missed. Her last acid comment before going to bed in disgust being "maybe she should have started with whom their old low class gigolo hadn't boffed on his home planet since it was surely a shorter list." There was no mistaking her glaring, narrowed eyed look of extreme jealousy either. Which surely meant Miss Uncaring Uzume was probably going to be his biggest headache in trying to avoid future too deep emotional involvement.

The whole experience had left Logan as mentally wrung out as Akitsu had done physically. What the hell? So he had admitted to maybe fifty or so affairs in a little over a century and a half of living. That was what? Less than three a year? And only four where he had given his whole heart in love for an average of one every thirty years or so? How was that being just another low gigolo? Logan had put up with the whole ordeal in hopes of maybe diminishing Kazehana and Matsu's lust quotients since he was obviously not forever and ever material. That had been a spectacular fail of the first order since both immediately decided they wanted to role play as being his past lovers down to costumes, uniforms, locations, positions, and even hair colors. They had even quarreled over who got to play at being Dazzler first in a karaoke bar. It had made Logan tired just to think about it.

In self disgust and too wound up to sleep, Logan had finally announced he was going to take a look at his truck and motorcycle to get them working as functional wheels to move around a little more anonymously than too easily spotted Air Sekirei. Actually, he had stayed in the garage all damn day to hide from his Sekirei like a flaming coward. Now the sun was setting, and he'd have to come out and face them sooner or later, just to eat if for no other reason.

Matsu and Kochou had stayed at Izumo Inn online ordering new computing equipment for immediate delivery from a local box store to get the exact sophisticated setup both brain types wanted while using Kochou's seemingly unlimited bag of cash. The two assured Logan they had definitely agreed to work cooperatively with each other and supply him everything their combined mental skills and powers could give to him. The other three though, Kazehana, Uzume, and especially Akitsu, had decided it was their primary mission to physically guard their helpless, sexy Ashikabi despite his demonstrated healing mutation. The three had perched on the garage roof all day, napping, sunbathing, and snacking; waiting like love starved vultures for their ripening prey to show himself for an all night lesson in promise keeping, aka pile on romp, or at least an Ashikabi train pull. That had taken a toll on Logan's nerves too, especially when he had run out of beer to drink around noon, and now it was sundown. Their shuffling about on the roof had also greatly hindered any cool and rational thinking about what in the hell he was doing in this screwy Tokyo to begin with.

Once again, a little more successfully this time, Logan tried to work through the things that were really bothering him about his current situation. First, the way he had arrived. Falling out of the sky and poisoned. Didn't make sense unless some enemy had most likely shoved him out of some kind of flyer after being shot with Carbonadium or Adamantium bullets. But if they had really wanted to kill him, then why hadn't they made sure he'd fallen into the Pacific Ocean? Hell, even he had to breathe despite his strong healing factor. Far enough from land and deep enough, he'd drown, eventually. So assume that his arrival was maybe accidental or at least unplanned, say chasing some enemy, screwing up somehow, and getting blown out of the sky. Then where was his downed craft? And who had he been chasing? Any enemy of his would've most probably circled back to capture him, sell him to the highest bidder, and/or kill him.

So accidental and/or enemy action might explain the bad fall and the poison, definitely his recent amnesia, but then neither of those scenarios explained him falling into the future of another dimensional Tokyo; especially right when long incubated and freaking love starved alien Sekirei just happened to start being released upon maturation to fight each other to the death in some stupid sounding tournament. All that right there stank. Way too coincidental, way too nonsensical, Logan scowled again while reaching for a wrench, and way too rotten. Except Kazehana, who wasn't rotten at all, neither were Akitsu, Kochou, Uzume, and Matsu, all just sweetly smelling of jasmine, vanilla, pine, lotus, and cherry blossoms with soft, warm, luscious red lips and even softer, warm...Dammit!

He had come here to work, clear his head, and try to think things through! Not daydream about five females he had just met last night! He had to get a handle on his situation! He wanted to find a way to get back home! Without killing the alien gals who had reacted and bonded to him to stay alive. And there were all those other little distractions out there too; more idiots like Mutsu, other military capture teams, MBI security hunting him, and the Tokyo police looking for him too. Kochou was also going to demand her being winged by him soon. He could sense it. There were other Sekirei reacting to him too, Haihane for one. Miya Asama, Izumo Inn's unknown landlady was simply missing, which was greatly bothering everyone, and, oh yeah, some super bitch Sekirei named Karasuba wanted to kill him. All that was downright distracting, let alone five incredibly beautiful, built, nubile, sweet smelling, entirely willing, and sexy young... no, dammit, don't go there!

Okay, okay, now focus bub, take it one problem at a time. Who or what had thrown him into another dimensional future? Run through the possibilities. The last thing he remembered before waking up in Tokyo was he had been unsuccessfully fighting with the Avengers against the X-Men on the Blue Area of the Moon to keep Hope Summers from merging with the Phoenix. Who had been up there that had multidimensional/time travel powers? Valkyrie and Scarlet Witch, both of whom were Avengers on his side, and Magik fighting with the X-Men, but Illyana had been busy fighting the Black Widow while he had been running to kill Hope before she could be possessed by the planet killing Firebird. Think now. The Phoenix had gotten to Hope first. Then there had been a giant explosion of fiery energy. He had been burnt badly, knocked out, and, and then, then what in the hell had happened?

He had come awake on a future, other dimensional Tokyo rooftop, flat on his back. Matsu had been winging herself, nearly raping him, and claiming he had been in town suffering from amnesia and blood poisoning for eight days while partnered with a brain damaged Akitsu. There had been nothing to do with Sekirei before or during the Moon battle, ever, and not even mentioned by anyone in idle conversation, so how could he blame Magik for his current situation when she had most probably never heard of Sekirei either? Huh, explosion made by the Phoenix. Okay. That had possibilities in and of itself.

Now that he thought about the years of constant combat on his home Earth and also in outer space, it was entirely possible that he had simply fallen afoul of the Phoenix Force's long memory. Maybe remembering his past adversarial encounters during its fatal possessions of Jean Grey, the big Firebird had simply used its vast galactic powers through Hope Summers to boot his ass into the future of another dimensional Earth just to simply get rid of him and his well remembered claws. Kinda similar to when ol' bubble brain Uatu the Watcher had swatted him like an insignificant little flea for accidentally invading the alien's moon home.

A niggling, long lost memory suddenly surfaced. Had that been the time he had been tossed way back into the past of another Earth, fought some crazy ass moron called Conan or Cogan the Conqueror or something? Chopped the guy's sword hand off, and then wound up fighting in a few wars with some redheaded babe to make her a queen of, of, Aquilonia or whatever? What had her name, oh yeah, Red Sonja, self described She-Devil of the Hyrkanian Steppes, a real go getter with a sword while looking like a clone of Jean Grey in some magical metal bikini armor. Now how could forget her? After he had dueled with her, beat her, and then let her go, Sonja had advised she was honor bound to give him her virginity, make him her Lord, and fight to gain him a kingdom. Which she had. Gal had really liked her booze too, as well as a lot of lusty all night carousing. A helluva good gal pal. Just like Kazehana was promising to be. Those had been some pretty fine years before ol' bubble head Uatu had snapped his fingers and yanked Logan the Flea back. Bastard. Supposed to only observe, not screw around with my life, Logan growled to himself. Should have left me there and saved a lot of grief later. Except now he was here.

But what if he hadn't been simply swatted or willy nilly booted here by some godlike entity? What if that entity or person of power kicking his ass here had PLANNED Logan's arrival? Right down to time and place and maybe even right next to Akitsu, the scrapped Number 07 Sekirei? And had made that arrival such that he and Akitsu would immediately hit it off and care for each other, her desperately wanting an Ashikabi, him needing her physical help from planned debilitating head damage resulting in his temporary amnesia? Or, hell, whoever had tossed him here could have just simply messed with his head to cause his amnesia too. After all, if whoever had the power to kick him around in time and across dimensions, they'd surely have the power to zap his brains for an eight day time out. And make sure he had met Uzume, Kazehana, Matsu, and Kochou maybe not so accidentally too?

Okay, Logan nodded to himself while scooting sideways under the old truck to get better leverage on his wrench handle. So the most likely case is I'm being used to do some powerful somebody's dirty work again? And this whoever has purposely made sure I had a personal stake in Crazy Mickey's Sekirei Plan? Maybe even going so far as to giving me irresistible pheromones to attract five Sekirei for bonding? Especially the more powerful ones like Kazehana and Akitsu? Who did he know that could do that to him? Have to be someone with god or goddess like powers, right? Let's see, uhhh, again Scarlet Witch, Magik, Valkyrie, Lady Sif, Enchantress, Sersi, Snowbird, Aurelle, Clea and/or Doc Strange, Talisman, Sister Grimm, Layla Miller, Merlin's daughter, what was her, oh yeah, Roma, hell, it could even be something simpler like say Chimera teaming up with Timeslip and Persuasion. Maybe even Cable or Bishop or any other time and dimensional traveler with access to advanced tech. But who among any of them would give a giant rat's ass about this Earth and its Sekirei? Let alone send him here? Damn. He was going in circles here. Too many possibilities, too few plausible motives. Still, he was probably right about being used again. But why?

Logan swore as the wrench slipped off the large nut he was tightening on the older model box truck's rear axle housing. His right knuckles banged sharply and painfully against the rear axle housing. Sighing at his own continuing lack of concentration, he reset the wrench and tightened the stubborn nut down, using his long experience and "feel" to sense the right amount of torque. There, he thought smugly as he scooted on his back out from under the ancient 2008 Mitsubishi Fuso Fe125. One Kazehana rear seal replaced, new u-joints, new Akitsu disc brakes and jasmine smelling tires all around, new shocks, new soft lips, new belts, new water pump, 4 cylinder turbocharged diesel engine tuned, sweet round ass, and new bushings on the steering rods. This bonded sweetheart is ready to roll on down the futon. No, dammit! Think straight!

He raised up too soon at catching his mind wandering again and thumped his forehead on the underside of the truck's box body. Swearing again, he slammed his wrench down into his new toolbox, sat down with his back to the truck, and sighed heavily. Face it, dummy, Logan shook his head in chagrin. Whether planned by a powerful entity or possibly accidental, Kazehana and now Akitsu's bonding to him was emotionally kicking his ass and really messing with his mind big time.

Logan let his head thump back against the side of the truck and closed his eyes. What in the hell had those two done to him? He had agreed to kiss Uzume and Kazehana to stop their Sekirei reacting torture, which any honorable warrior would have done, but man, Kazehana's bonding felt even more intense than the psychic connection he had with Psylocke. So was Akitsu's. Logan opened his eyes and frowned as he thought that last over. But how? Betts was one of the stronger telepaths he knew, not like Jean Grey had been of course, but almost as strong as Emma Frost and Rachel Grey.

"Forever and ever, Lover-kun," Kazehana's big, smiling dark eyes had sparkled from the city lights below them. "The enchantment winds of my pact will blow away my Ashikabi's dark clouds."

There. Right there. A PACT. One sided. Logan rubbed his chin in agitated concern. And Akitsu's pledge had sounded just as intense, albeit more readily lethal. Neither Matsu nor Uzume had said anything after their bonding with him. So why was Kazehana and Akitsu making one sided, forever and ever pacts? Man, they sounded mighty permanent. What was his Sekirei going to do when he returned to his own Earth and time? Die? Go with him? Oh, now wouldn't THAT go over big! If they did, none of his Sekirei would probably be too happy with him for having Emma or Rachel or Betts try to break their bonding. Uzume and Kochou might be okay with it, maybe even Matsu eventually, but Kazehana? Akitsu? Nah. Their binding pacts were a unilateral, demanding nothing, self sacrificing promise to do everything within their powers to make him happy and protected while sounding totally permanent. Man, those were going to be tough to break without killing them. So should he even try?

Logan looked up at the cobweb filled ceiling of the little one bay, cement block, old garage he had rented to store and work on the truck and motorcycle. Damn he could use a few cold beers right now. Maybe even a case. What the hell? He had never had any female, ever, go all in on him in love at their first meeting and/or before he'd had a chance to develop his own feelings for her. Now he had at least five, maybe more in less than twenty four freaking hours! What to do? And damn! Why did all five have to be so, so, well, over freaking whelming? And incredibly desirable? And hey, don't forget Haihane had been damn good fun too. There had to be an answer here somewhere, something a whole lot better than simply being used as pawn in Mickey's game. Since he didn't have any beer, maybe he should meditate?

Logan shoved his toolbox aside, assumed the lotus position, and began to regulate his breathing for deep meditation. In times past when he had needed answers from within himself, this was the way he had been taught to do it decades ago by his Samurai masters, and it almost always worked. He expanded his mind's awareness, dropped his mental shield, and began his internal discourse.

My body is at rest, in harmony with nature within and without. My spirit is at peace. Neither sight nor sound nor taste nor touch nor smell … not even the smallest sensation … to disturb this all embracing stillness. All I'm left with are my thoughts.

Logan let his mind move back through his memories seeking the one place where he had experienced the greatest peace in his life. There were gaps again, disturbing because somehow he knew down deep that he had recovered all his real memories at one time, but now once again pieces of his life had been taken from him. Nevertheless, he retreated down the corridors of time in his mind, past his time with the Avengers, X-Force, the Civil War, Skrull Invasion, the Decimation, Apocalypse, his regression after stripped of his Adamantium by Magneto, recruitment by Charles Xavier, Alpha Flight, Department H, Weapon X, WW II, Madripoor, WW I, and running feral wild as a youth in the Canadian Rockies. Clearing those mostly blood soaked images he then found himself kneeling in front of Jean Grey's grave in mourning and remembrance, next traveling in his mind to the old cabin and putting flowers on the grave of Silverfox, then visiting the Yashida family compound to relive his time and memories with Mariko, and then heading for Jasmine Falls for Itsu's stone marker and... His focus was suddenly yanked into another recent memory.

"DON'T you DARE call me Darlin'! Ever Again!" The strident voice of Kitty Pryde sliced through his attempt to find his inner peaceful center at Jasmine Falls. Instead, his mind had him suddenly standing in the library of the Jean Grey Academy facing a very pissed off Kitty. A large book thumped off his forehead followed by another, thrown at him by her in the midst of an angry rant the likes he had never seen from her before. What memory was this? He couldn't place it. When had it happened? She had surprised him so badly that he hadn't even tried to instinctively duck or dodge the heavy books.

"I'm NOT one of your booze buddy floozies, Logan! And I will NOT be demeaned as one by you! And another thing! I'm not Kid, Kiddo, Half Pint, Squirt, Suburbia, Kitten, Doll, or any other damn dumb nick name making me any less than an adult woman and super close friend that deserves better from you! Do you understand? Treat me like a grown woman who MEANS something to you, damn you!"

"What the Hell?" He had turned and asked an equally nonplussed Hank McCoy after Miss Katherine Pryde had literally flounced out of the library in a total huff. The books on the floor before him were titles about proper English elocution and decorous social manners.

"Ummm, not sure Logan," Hank had mused in speculation while scratching thoughtfully between his blue furred ears. "But did you ever notice that with females there's always Another Thing? Always confuses me too. Anyway, I think she's still very upset about Bobby going off to war with you and getting killed. She was pretty fond of him before he left. Then the Shi'ar doc examined Kitty a couple of days ago and found that her Brood impregnation before the Shadowbox Wars had badly scarred her fallopian tubes. Kitty is almost incapable of conceiving a child normally, Logan, and extremely disappointed, inconsolably angry actually, that you, ummm, have ignored her, ummm, signals of sexual interest in years when she was fertile and especially since the Wars ended. Now this exam has really hurt her badly. She has always wanted children, Logan, and I think if the truth be known deep within her, your children, and you."

"WHAT? Me and Pryde?"

"Yeah," Hank returned absently while yawning. "But maybe not all that weird. She's was your sidekick trainee before Jubilee, who has also major crushed on you to this day by the way, even if she is a vampire. How many young gals did you mentor or sidekick over the years? Natalia the Black Widow, Carol Danvers, what's her name Polaris, oh yeah Armor, Wolfsbane, Rogue of course, Dazzler, Domino, Amp, hell, I've lost count. Me, I've never mentored one hot young chick, not one. Never even took one jogging through the woods. I never trusted joggers. Always discovering dead bodies and skeletal remains and nasty stuff. I'm no detective though, just saying. Suspicious."

"Rough night with Abigail?" He finally asked after giving the rambling McCoy a long, quizzical eyeball. Joggers were serial killers?

"Yeah, rode me like a champion rodeo bull. Stayed on the full eight hours too. Just like Kitty wants to do you. Isn't no wonder she's pissed off about your all night poker parties with Poison, Verre, and the B.A.D. Girls. Kitty's been REALLY jealous of the Academy's maids and cooks you hired. And Storm is getting ready to unload on you, Logan. Big time. Pretty sure the rest of your sidekicks are feeling the same way these days since the wars ended, and no doubt Rachel, Betsy, Dagger, Surge, Sage, M, Frenzy, and every other too horny female around here too. Even Blink and Pixie since you started eyeballing Ava'Dara. That's why I'm hiding out from them all down in the labs. Abigail's killing me as it is."

Logan's meditating breathing broke rhythm as he frowned at the total oddness of that memory. He had hired criminal gals as maids and cooks? Eyeballing the Warbird? Since when? Damn! And who could have ever seen that coming with the Half Pint? Let alone Storm and the others. They all had turned their backs on him for other guys, some even a couple of times. Keeping his eyes closed, Logan examined some of the strange blank spaces in his memories.

There had never been any Shadowbox Wars either, had there? Well, there was that one incident where an unknown would be invader's open dimensional portal had been blasted from the S.W.O.R.D. Orbital station by Hank's half alien girlfriend Abigail Brand. That had to have caused some very serious world wide damage to that other planet, but Bobby Iceman Drake hadn't even been involved in that. No retaliation attack on Earth 616 that Logan knew about either. And when had Kitty been knocked up by some Brood Queen? That hadn't happened. Or had it when he had left the School to fight with the Avengers against Cyclops and his renegade X-Men? Or maybe both the Wars and Kitty's Brood problem HAD happened, and now he'd forgotten them? All this didn't make sense either. And he had called gals "Darlin'" for years! But he hadn't been calling any female Darlin' yesterday or today. When had he changed? Slightly shaking his head in puzzlement and beginning his meditating mantra anew, Logan resumed his breathing, and headed for the most peaceful center of his memories; his time with Itsu at Jasmine Falls.

Almost immediately he was there and walking past the blooming cherry trees that lined the pathway leading up a grassy hillside. The long used dirt path wound past the waterfalls before ending in the distance at the little hillside cabin he had built for Itsu. Fragrant cherry blossoms were wafting about in the light breeze that was also sighing through the long grasses on the hill as well as the cherry tree branches. A wet, soothing mist from the steeply falling water behind him sparkled with a rainbow in the warm morning sun. Logan stopped to sit and relish every nuance of the scene, letting its peace and quietude bask the center of his soul. Sometimes he would watch a memory of Itsu walking past, smiling and singing as she held a flower to her nose. Here he had found deep peace for a time, deep peace and soul satisfying love with his sweet, kind hearted, and totally loving Japanese wife. After long moments of simply savoring the sweet memories of his long ago home and love, Logan finally gathered his psychic power and sent out a mental call.

Betsy? Emma? Rachel?

Getting no response from his X-Women telepaths, he repeated the mental S.O.S. several times before he got a weak nudge from what felt like a far away female presence.

Logan? Logan! Logan, it IS you! Oh YES! Where ARE you?

Logan, eyes still closed and half self hypnotized, cocked his head slightly in an involuntary attempt to hear better in his mind. Whoever this was didn't "feel" familiar to him.

Tokyo. I'm in Tokyo. This is Betsy, right?

What? Who's Betsy?

Uhhh, WHO is this?

Are you nuts? I'm SARA! Why did you leave me, Logan?

Leave? Who? Me? I, uhhh, had to fight? On the moon?

Logan! Damn you! If you think you can bullshit...

The mental connection to the unknown female faded into a far off ball of hot anger in his mind then winked out. None too soon for him he suspected.

"Who is Betsy, Emma, Rachel, and Sara?" From somewhere to his right and behind him, Kazehana's mental voice washed through him with a mildly curious tone.

In his mind Logan turned to see her and Akitsu both standing on the pink blossom covered path beside Jasmine Falls, wearing nothing but happy and slightly teasing smiles as more petals fell around them. Well, there went the meditating neighborhood! His two psychic Sekirei had slipped past his open mental shield to mentally join him in his meditative state! Now how in the name of Yowsa! was a fella supposed to meaningfully meditate with instant hardwood?

"Logan-chan! Pretty! SO Pretty! This Jasmine Falls memory is such a GOOD place!" Akitsu clapped her hands in childlike fashion while gazing in wide eyed approval all about her. Then her eyes snapped down to look intently into his. "Take us here, Logan-chan, and take us!"

"I like the sounds of that too, Stiffy-chan!" Kazehana laughed softly while giving him a nude, slow, and very sexy shoulder shimmy. What that did to his peaceful center's surrounding scenery was a meditating dream stopper in an onrush of hot desire that suddenly crackled between them both and incredibly, Akitsu too.

Logan's mind went completely blank, whatever hopes of finding a solution to his other worldly Tokyo problems totally shut down. Naked breasts had always been very high on his interest list. He sat beside his Fuso truck like an aroused, mindless, imitation stone Buddha for several very long minutes until the sounds of the garage side door opening a few paces from him impinged upon his senses. One deep sniff of tuna flavored hyssop identified his visitor, but he turned to look towards the back side door of the garage anyway. Haihane was standing in the open doorway in a disheveled, short blue kimono, her frizzed hair matted and tangled, her sneakers untied, deep dark circles under her eyes, and her face and exposed skin blushing a deep red. She had her claws slung on her back and was carrying a handful of cigars and a case of canned Sapporo beer.

"Hey, Old Man," Haihane greeted him in a hoarse whisper and with a sickly smile of apology.

"Hank, what the hell? How'd you find me?"

"Heh, turns out I got a helluva Old Man locator in my head now, an', heh, Hank, love that nickname too. Kinda pervy guy gal soundin', ya know? I was, uhhh, kinda in the neighborhood, just hangin' around like. Punched out the beer truck driver behind the 7-11 konbini across the street and swiped his cigars and some beer. Then, uhhh, ya know, kinda waited my chance to see ya again, maybe? The two gals up top seemed to take a kneelin' nap after Uzume hopped over to the 7-11, so I, uhhh, kinda sneaked in, and, well, thought ya might like a beer or two and, uhhh, a good smoke. Maybe even another hot bath and screw somewhere? Together?"

"Babe, I'm really sorry about last night," Logan began while wincing at the waves of hot pain now radiating from her as her body wobbled in effort to keep standing. "I had no idea it would hurt you so badly or cause so much..."

"Awww," Haihane attempted a weak chuckle while unwittingly dropping her beer and cigars to simply cling with both hands to the doorway for support. "I ain't sorry. Not even a little bit. It was worth it, Old Man. I sure ain't gonna die a virgin now, ya know? Even as a gal named Hank. Heh. I just come by now to see if ya might like to drink a few beers, smoke a stogie, and uhhh, just fuck and suck each others brains out, with, with kisses this time."

"Dammit Hank!" Logan began as he thumped his head hard twice against his truck's side in self recrimination. What a total shithead he had been with her! As if he hadn't learned a damn thing from his bloody, murderous, "too many girlfriends getting killed" past! He was going to get her killed too, or already had, if, if, shit! If he didn't wing her!

"And, uhhh, well," Haihane gasped in dismay at his pained, eyes squeezed shut, facial expression. "I can understand ya maybe not wantin' a plain dumb bitch like me around. I know I ain't the brightest bulb in the pachinko marquee, sure ain't anywhere near cute, helluva dirty smellin' mess now, and I guess ya know I ain't much of a fighter either. I was hopin' maybe ya might wanna teach me, an', an' I'd bust my damn butt to learn. But, uhhh, if not, maybe you could, uhhh, just use your claws and put me down quick? I, uhhh, I don't think I can last much longer. The frozen tuna vaults down at the fish markets just wasn't workin' out for me, dude. Ya might wanna head there pretty soon though. Ol' Benny's in pretty bad shape, knocked out, but still burnin' up. Kinda funny her dyin' a virgin on a stack of frozen tuna, ain't it, Old Man? Almost, almost as funny as me here, smellin' like her, an', an'… uhhh..."

"Damn!" Logan exclaimed as Haihane slid slowly down to her knees, still trying to smile apologetically. He came out of his own self blaming funk to scramble up and jumped to catch her as her fingers just couldn't hold onto the doorway anymore. Taking a deep breath and yet knowing he didn't have a choice, Logan snagged her under her arms and pulled her lips to his. Panting softly, she was only able to let her jaws sag open and let his tongue invade her mouth. Wings of white with deep streaks of indigo only flared briefly behind her, and yet, a dark pink Sekirei bird crest formed perfectly and imprinted between her shoulder blades. Her eyes fluttered as she moaned in relief and her hands came up to weakly clasp at his bulging biceps. She missed. Her head flopped backwards as all strength left her, but he caught her.

"Ahhh, fuck, thanks Old Man," Haihane whispered in one shaky breath before passing out.

"Sonofabitch! Logan you dumb sonofabitch!" He snarled at himself before picking her up and carrying her across the door's threshold like a new bride and groom. "She's too HOT! AKITSU! KAZEHANA! AKITSU! I NEED HELP!"

A heartbeat later Akitsu landed beside them, took one look at Haihane's deeply flushed face, and began waving her hands up and down the unconscious Sekirei's body, cooing in sympathy as she began cooling Haihane's too hot flesh.

"You kissed her!" Uzume blurted accusingly as she and Kazehana touched down on either side of their Ashikabi a second later. Uzume was carrying a cold six pack of beer and a bag of salted pretzel sticks from the 7-11 and mentally kicking herself for making a snack and booze run to give Haihane an opening past the suddenly meditating Akitsu and Kazehana. Her self kicking and long hatred of Haihane, along with NOT being called to help, caused Uzume to say too loudly and too sharply, "I TOLD you she's BIG trouble!"

"YOU," Logan snapped back in instant anger to make Uzume flinch badly, "and ME are gonna fucking tangle if you don't fucking lighten up! I couldn't let Hank suffer any more than I could let you! We're here to save lives until I find a way to cut you all free without killing you, dammit! Don't you understand? I am bigger trouble for all of you! Dying trouble! But my days of pointless murder are over! Even for you! And I got more news! There's another one named Benny in some fish market or warehouse that needs saved too! And if you or anyone else don't like that, then that's tough shit! Now you get with my damn program here, Uzume, or just haul your tight ass and heartless pretty tits back to Izumo and keep away from me from now on! Got it?"

"She gets it, Lo-chan," Kazehana smoothly moved in between him and a very wounded and shocked looking Uzume who was now receiving a really cold glare from Akitsu. Uzume shook her head slightly in near panic. No! She hadn't meant to make their Ashikabi angry! Haihane was bad news! And an enemy! And he called her heartless? That hurt!

"You NOT make my Ashikabi unhappy, or I CUT you!" That sharp threatening hiss past Akitsu's lips almost matched her frosty eyes and gave Uzume a new meaning for "if looks could kill." The message was clear. Uzume was on very thin ice of Akitsu's very short fuse, which even made mixed metaphor sense if one suddenly gets a thin, razor sharp icicle thrown angrily into one's throat.

"Take Claws back inside, Lover," Kazehana shifted just as quickly to get between Akitsu and wincing Uzume. "Kiss her again to let her psychic Norito strength help revive her, and, ummm, chug a beer or two for yourself. Then Aki-chan can keep cooling her down while Claws tells us how to find Benitsubasa. Uzume and you can chat latter."

"She can take her inquisition chats and shove 'em!" Logan growled low in his throat. "I ain't putting put up with any more of THAT shit! She can just take her lousy attitude and kiss my ass if..."

"You're right," Kazehana agreed while reaching out to caress Logan's left shoulder and then start lightly rubbing his chest in small circles. In sympathetic fondling and equally caressing vocal tones as she moved behind him and pressed into his back, she continued in a sympathetic pouting tone with, "And you're tired and thirsty and hungry, Sweetums. You've worked SO hard and done SO much last night and all day and the sun has already set now. Let's get Benitsubasa, then go back to the Inn and bathe, eat, and rest, okay, Honey-kun?"

"All right," Logan's stressed out anger faded rapidly with Kazehana's warm whispers in his left ear despite knowing full well he was being treated like a hot headed idiot, but the cold black shield around his mind was back. This whole damn temporary Sekirei harem thing was so NOT going to work! He had better redouble his efforts to find a way back home as soon he could, or the whole damn city would be bonding to him, driving him further homicidal nuts than he already knew he was, and eventually killing them all.

Less than a minute later Haihane revived enough to stare in slightly frowning wonder up at a kneeling Logan holding her head in his lap and cradling her to him protectively.

"Hi Babe, welcome back," Logan smiled down at her. She raised her left hand to lightly touch his right jaw as if trying to make sure he was real.

"Awww, you sweet perv. I didn't think you'd," Haihane swallowed hard to keep from choking up. "I REALLY didn't think you'd want..."

"Ahhh, I'm just a gigolo," Logan chuckled lightly, and surprisingly finished in a smiling, lighthearted sing song parody. "And everyplace I go, I'm a sucker for a hot gal just like you. With pretty light blue eyes, a case of beer, sweet thighs, and not wearing her... new panties."

"Heh, lost 'em somewhere," Haihane's eyes came a little further to life with amused understanding, "An' you're an old perv too, but that wrinkled wastoid David Lee Roth ain't ever put the grrrr in bigger like you can."

"Yeah, he was a total bust wasn't he? Kinda like Mick Jagger. Young and old. Or maybe he just never had the right beer, bath, and a hot number like you to put the grrrr into? But you're right, I am too old too. Now, where's your friend Benny? I think it's dark enough to move around in the air. I'm going to carry you Hank, and Kazehana's going to fly us all there to save her."

Uzume literally bit her tongue, looked down at the garage floor and balled her fists in further silent and jealous dismay. If there had been any doubt about how far down she was on her Ashikabi's shit list now, that last sideways gigolo dig had just told her. And what was that about him cutting them all free without killing them? And the dark coldness of self loathing she felt coming from him? And being TOO old? As in not wanting to get much older? He hated himself? That much? And maybe her now too? That, that wasn't how she really wanted things to be! For either of them! Damn her fast temper and tongue! Uzume looked up to see Kazehana and Akitsu both staring at her with thin lipped frowns of warning. Logan's patience was not to be tried any further by Uzume, now or later, or else.

"Head for the Tsukiji fish market then," Haihane nodded up at Logan with short rapid nods of understanding. "I'll show ya the warehouse. It's got a green metal roof, and it's full of frozen tuna. And, uhhh, better keep an eye out for Karasuba. She's probably out hunting Benny and me, and really pissed off too."

"Tsukiji? That's central Tokyo. Let's go, and screw that Karasuba, whoever in the hell she is. And she better look out. I'm suddenly in the mood to kick some major ass in this town." Logan picked Haihane up again before turning to look coldly at Uzume. "Which way you going?"

A freezing chill instantly swept through Uzume and painfully squeezed her heart. That look from him HURT! She had already instinctively known earlier that Kazehana and Akitsu had much deeper bonds with Logan than she and even Matsu. Now with that look and his obvious ongoing anger with her, was he starting to reject Uzume's weaker bonds to him? It would kill her if he did! She gasped for breath in fear of what her silly jealousy was causing. Her throat was suddenly too constricted for speech to say she wanted to go with him.

"With us," Kazehana smiled innocently while grabbing Uzume's right bicep and squeezing hard in another discreet warning to just keep her too tart mouth shut. Despite his easy teasing tenderness towards Haihane, which was actually making Kazehana feel a little jealous too, Logan's shiny black mind shield was back and that was very bad news for all of them, especially if his Sekirei were trying to win his heart and love forever and ever.

***scene break***

"Young goddess of Kouten, if Sekirei only mate once, forever and ever," the soft female voice from the shadows had a very puzzled one, "then why did an alien immortal like yourself consort with a fragile mortal human knowing your time together would be so very brief? And yet you still mourn so greatly years after his death?"

"I was," Miya Asama hesitated in searching for the right word, "completely ignorant of love when awakened from my damaged ship's emergency stasis, ignorant of all emotions really. My Mother's training on Kouten was for war, planet care, and rule, nothing else. I was only to accompany our colonizing expedition, learn about and from our human/Sekirei interbreeding program, and return, not crash and be forced to stay. My late human husband, one of the scientists who helped us upon our discovery, was kind, gentle, generous, full of life and humor. These I had never experienced before, and after being around him for a long time, I found that I had always been starved for affection, loving attention, and concern. I was finally able to respond to his warmth, but I then found I was very ignorant of what bonding was too, especially after I met Logan."

"You consorted with your human mate with no bonding heat of your own?"

"No, no bonding heat, only happiness. Takehito wasn't an Ashikabi, just, just a very good man."

"But now you are still feeling bonding heat for my Lord Logan. And have been since you first met."

"Yes, but," Miya paused again, more in dismay and chagrin this time. "I'm afraid he will not want to bond with me now, and would reject me if I forced myself upon him. He has closed his mind."

"Did I not predict this?" The unknown female's tone was not accusatory nor gloating, but simply factual and even sympathetic. Miya merely nodded silently in return. Everything the strange, green robed, and hooded woman had predicted by Takehito's grave had come exactly true so far. There was just one event of that forecast left to happen for the mysterious female seer to be completely accurate.

From her hidden vantage point on the roof of a seven story apartment building two blocks east of Izumo Inn, Miya let her anxious eyes once again sweep Tokyo's brightly lit skyline and then look up at the cloud free night sky. Somewhere out beyond the myriad of the Milky Way Galaxy's stars, in another time and another dimension, was Logan's home Earth. Would he soon return there and leave her here to die? Miya bit her lip, closed her eyes, and shook her head slightly as a wave of hopeless despair swept over her. Why had she been such a sharp tongued fool with him? Why hadn't she acknowledged her deep interest in him to herself and acted upon it much sooner, especially after watching that video of him and Akitsu naked together in Shiba Park? That had left Miya KNOWING she desired him greatly. So why hadn't she just thrown her stiff pride, reserve, and self doubts aside as Matsu had done and simply begged him to wing her?

Logan had been willing and kind enough to not reject Matsu, and then wing Uzume and Kazehana to stop their reacting agony. Then he had quickly winged Akitsu, Haihane, Benitsubasa, and now Kochou for the same reason, but Miya had remained aloof, watching, hesitating, and making sure the strange robed woman's predictions would all come true before approaching Logan. Only now it was too late. His psychic mind was totally shielded, cold, hard, and completely unreceptive. Nor, except for small leaks and cracks, could Miya feel one iota of difference between him and any other human male in the city who was not an Ashikabi. He had somehow naturally learned how not to appeal to an unwinged Sekirei, nor respond to them.

She had been spent the night before, all day yesterday, and now most of tonight following Logan around and keeping a surreptitious watch on his activities; watching and waiting to see if everything that had been predicted over her late husband's grave in the afternoon day before yesterday was true or not. If it was, then Miya would very soon be forced to consider a very disturbing, life or death choice that would last, one way or another, forever and ever.

Miya had been weeping in frustration, guilt, and self pity while kneeling before Takehito's grave, bemoaning her stupid actions and hasty words that had led to Logan's cold, hard hostility towards her upon their first meeting. She was also weeping in heated jealousy since Matsu had called earlier. Number Two had breathlessly and joyfully announced that Logan had winged her, but he had refused to come to Izumo Inn and had no interest in winging any more Sekirei. An unknown, green robed, and hooded woman then suddenly appeared beside Takehito's grave stone. After a respectful, graceful greeting, she made a simple self introduction as just being a woman already deeply bonded to Logan. The stranger had then given a quick presentation of the current facts about Miya's life and fears for MBI's Sekirei Plan. Then the woman had made specific predictions about what would soon be happening starting then until on this roof now, asking Miya to test her veracity, and on that basis, respond to her request to travel to another dimensional Earth and make another attempt to be winged by Logan.

Miya had silently listened while slightly frowning at the visitor's robed, hooded, and face shrouded form which had emanated an unbelievable aura of power about her. That intense nimbus had literally shimmered in a soft yet bright green glow that had been hard to look at yet and had also kept the unknown newcomer's face in hooded shadows. The tone of the unknown seer's voice, however, had been tender, warm, and caring; her words reaching into the depths of Miya's soul with unmistakable feelings of truth, concern, and honesty. Even though it had hurt to hear the visitor say that although Miya's late husband might have deserved her fond memory, there was no denying that now, Miya Asama, Daughter Goddess of Kouten, wanted this powerful and highly attractive Logan as her Ashikabi, lover, and great love forever and ever.

Logan was now coming out of the Inn and walking around the grounds in deep thought. Although he was tightly shielded, she could still faintly feel him in her mind. Sudden Sekirei reactive heat engulfed her to where she gasped and staggered to stand upright. After several long seconds of struggling to gain control and composure, the lights of Tokyo's skyline began to blur in deep disappointment as to what his cold, black mental shield meant for Miya's present fate. Logan, obviously very unhappy, closed off, and deeply disturbed, would certainly reject her if she presented herself to him for bonding. And, it would kill her.

"My Lord is extremely gifted in many ways, young goddess of Kouten," Miya's companion murmured sympathetically from the deep darkness cast by the building's elevator housing, "but his mind shield is mostly a product of his iron will and dedicated hard work. Now it resists even me who helped him polish it, however there are very small cracks still. Probe them with my help. Tell me what you can feel in them?"

"Death, blood, animal rage, rejection, pain," Miya said slowly after closing her eyes and frowning hard in concentration. "Great pain, even greater sorrow and heartaches. Deep love. Very deep love, loyalty, and devotion for past partners. And, anger at being here, unhappy with being entangled, and a purpose to, to return home and make his friends as safe as he … OH! oh...no... is he, is he?"

"Yes, suicidal, very suicidal," the green robed female murmured sadly. "So much so that even with all my powers and the months of happiness we spent together, I can't give him back his will to live now. His sickness unto death began from all the nonstop killing he had done in two very bloody world wars. That triggered his first attempts, trying to freeze to death and asking a witch to kill him, but his healing factor returned his frozen body to life. The witch fell in love with him and refused his request. Years after that he was captured and made into a deadly, brain washed assassin by evil government operatives and scientists. Decades later his memories of his brain washed, robotic killing years returned, and he found that he had been made to slaughter an entire village, four thousand plus men, women, and children just as a test of their evil control over his mind. My Lord couldn't live with that old horror, he stabbed his brain, but again his healing factor thwarted his desire for death.

"He has tried multiple times since, especially after he was maneuvered by vengeful criminals into fighting and killing three sons and two daughters he hadn't even known were his. Then he found out a fourth unknown son had been behind it all while also cruelly manipulated by lies and hatred. That son finally committed suicide in an attempt to destroy and vilely spite his estranged father.

"In between all those tragedies, my Lord fought men of evil on his own, he joined powerful teams, and continued fighting in more bloody and insane wars on his planet and even in interstellar space. During all that combat over the span of almost a century, my Lord gave his whole heart to only four women. One by one, heartbroken anew each time, he buried them after their violent deaths. Two died simply because they were allied to him and used for more cruel manipulation of his powers and talents. He slew the other two in tender love and mercy so they wouldn't suffer. One was poisoned, and one was possessed by a destructive galactic force that was threatening to destroy their world and asked him for her release.

"Other females of whom he was fond were repeatedly kidnapped and held hostage to manipulate or blackmail him. Some were greatly abused and even killed simply to hurt him. He continued to actively contemplate taking his own life, so much so that it triggered his fascination with a disturbed painting by an ancient artist named Van Gogh who also committed suicide, and an old song about Van Gogh's insanity that was named 'Starry Starry Night'. Eventually he fled his dimension to live in anonymity and seclusion on a different world. Even then he was occasionally forced to fight great evil in disguise because my Lord has always been heroic, courageous, and honorable in his heart, but that old song and suicidal artist still fascinates him to this day, especially when his memory is affected by great trauma. I have tried everything I could to break that suicidal desire of my Lord, and am now reduced to this one last opportunity."

"Then," Miya's facial expressions changed as her analytical mind and now swirling emotions rapidly processed all this. They went from stoic to interested to horrified to worried then almost weirdly pleased and half smiling as one thing stood out her despite his current emotional instability. "Then Logan is almost like a heroic demigod of war and, and, ummm, love?"

"Yes, very much so, and for me, even more. He is now my Lord. Years after he fled his home planet, we met, and I thought him an enemy during a time of great troubles and betrayal of my kingdom. Even though my forces were eventually defeated in fighting and I was gravely wounded by him, he refused to kill me, protected me, and even gave of himself to heal me.

"Understand, I had been abandoned by all my family, my friends, my fighters, my people, and cruelly left for dead. It had never happened to me before. Out of the depths of his natural compassion and goodness, my former enemy alone refused to let me die. I thought all hope was lost when everyone fled, but my Lord freely shared his beautiful nature, tender care, and his healing powers, asking nothing in return. He helped me start life anew in the empty ruins of my kingdom. For that alone I could not help but completely bond myself to him. Then, just by being him, humorous, warm, courageous, honorable, and deeply caring, I fell in love, gave him my whole heart, and made him my consort and Lord. I now love him as I have never loved before, ever, but my love for him could not heal the old, too deep, and devastating wounds in his heart. Night after night I wept over him and for him as he slept and kept singing that terrible song in his troubled dreams. I began craving and then plotting to find a way to make his cruelly scarred heart whole and happy, but I failed in every attempt."

"How did Logan-san come here? To this, this dimensional Earth? Why?"

"A few years ago my Lord learned that his home planet would be embroiled in a massive inter dimensional war. I begged him and begged him to stay with me and not return there, but his loyalty and devotion and determination to make his old friends and teammates safe came between us. I had to let him go. I set him free in hopes he would come back to me and my great love for him, but that war, a war beyond even my comprehension for inhuman savagery, engulfed him. And hurt him much too deeply again. Hurt him so badly that now he can't live with himself even in victory. Nor will he return to me for he knows my old enemies now in control of his world would follow and try to attack me again, just as they are already plotting his death to more secure their controlling power.

"Now, with most of his war allies and comrades dead or imprisoned, he is only working to build a secure place and safer future for the few remaining friends he loved and fought beside on Earth 616. The place is called the House of L, a sanctuary to heal and preserve life. He wants it shielding his friends until a better, kinder government can come to power and make their futures as risk-free as can be attained while surviving the current inter dimensional turmoil. Also, to keep them and me safe, and from being aligned too closely to him, he is also planning his uncharted escape and a hidden suicidal death once his building is done."

"But he came here badly wounded, sick, hurt, alone, cut off from his world, and not even knowing who, what, or where he was," Miya tried to wrap her mind around and make sense of everything she had heard. Something was very wrong here. Logan's powerful consort had almost killed him to help him gain a will to live? "Was this a result of another failed attempt to kill himself?"

"No, but I, I had to do something before he did!" The hooded woman's voice broke from near weeping emotion. Her hands came out of the folds of her robe to wring together in anguish. "I searched every dimensional Earths' possible time lines past and future for a ray of hope, a possibility, anything to restore his will to live and heal his deep despair. The best I could find was this one movable singularity between Earth 2301 and Earth 616 that had very complex interactive factors. Even then the future outcomes for my Lord could not be favorably predicted as there were too many female variables involved on both planets. I then chose the one set of temporal and dimensional equations of this singularity that at least gave several possibilities of my Lord surviving. I set them in motion using the most promising derivative factors available on each Earth and with you, young goddess of Kouten, as part of the best constant between them."

"I, I don't understand," Miya frowned uncertainly. "Part of a constant? Me? What does that mean?"

"The most I can say to keep the derivative equations as statistically favorable as possible for my Lord's future life is that if you stay on Earth 2301 tonight, then my Lord will certainly reject any future attempt by you to bond with him here. You will die here, young goddess, painfully rejected, and all the children of Kouten will eventually die in MBI's vile Sekirei Plan. My Lord will also eventually die by his own hand, but if you come with me to Earth 616, then you will have a better chance to bond with my Lord on a much more favorable basis. Both of you and all of Kouten's Sekirei will have a much better chance of living. And if your bonding to him happens, then my Lord Logan could yet return to me with his spirit healed."

"But what if Logan-san finds out that you, ummm, have schemed..."

"He won't. I have the telepathic power to selectively erase memories. After our talk here, you will only remember that a stranger gave you a fresh opportunity to favorably meet Logan. You must engage him anew on Earth 616 and win him for yourself, not for me."

"But, uhhh, where will we, and, and what will happen to this Earth, and..."

"You? You and Kouten's children?" The green robed woman finished Miya's thoughts and fears, her large hood still covering her head and hiding her face as she partially emerged from the elevator housing's shadows. "Where will you end up? I simply don't know. There are several positive possibilities as I have mentioned, each I can gladly accept for my Lord's survival, and each with you and Kouten's children finding and living happy, contented, and fruitful lives, but there are absolutely no guarantees. You will have to fight on Earth 616, young goddess, fight like you've never fought before against very powerful foes to win his heart. If you do, I, I may even completely lose my Lord's heart to you, but I will take those risks for his sake. I simply chose the best factors I could get, yet there are still better chances for total failure for everyone than success in this derivative set of equations. Beyond that I cannot say any more of Earth 616 lest this mobile singularity would get moved in a negative way by your becoming any less of an inter dimensional constant than you are right now."

"Are there multiple possibilities if I don't leave?"

"Yes, there are several singularities that run close to this one, all negative. In one your ship never comes to the surface for discovery and remains entombed forever in cooled magma on the ocean bottom. In another, my Lord falls to another Earth and your Inn becomes a base for a young college student who wings several powerful Sekirei and eventually you. The Sekirei Plan proceeds and all Sekirei are slaughtered save one. In a third, this Earth is invaded from another dimension's past and made into a breeding colony for soldiers in a vast inter dimensional/temporal war. You and most of your Sekirei simply become egg producers that are fertilized by alien clone warriors until this Earth is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. To be totally honest, there are several singularities where you leave, but you either perish and/or simply don't return. In every case wars erupt, my Lord and all Sekirei are eventually hunted down, killed, or die later in captivity."

"So if I go with you, we all would at least have some chance for life and happiness," Miya murmured while pensively biting her lower lip. If all this was true, then leaving was really her only option, and then she would have to fight to make it back. That also meant her fate and that of all Sekirei would be depending on her fighting skills, experience, training, and cunning. Logan had come out tonight, she had reacted very strongly, and now Logan was coldly shielded and aloof. Although everything the strange female beside Miya had predicted earlier over her late husband's grave had now come true, was that enough for Miya to go traveling across dimensional planes to Earth 616 in slim hopes of getting a new start for Logan's affections?

"If you stay, my Lord certainly dies. You die," the green robed seer finished softly, "alone, in great pain, and childless."

"Childless? You mean, if I go, I may live, and might also have a child with Logan?"

"That would be a possibility, one that I would greatly welcome also. Having a big loving family is one of my Lord's deepest held desires. Young goddess of Kouten, know this well. I am already bonded to my Lord Logan deeper than you can conceive at this moment. I desperately want you to share that bonding to save him and because his life and happiness is the absolute utmost importance to me. Whatever and whoever it takes to make him want to live and be happy, I will use every power I have to make it happen, but I am not all powerful. And now I urgently need help, your help, and I have no shame in begging you for it. Since you and he are both near immortal, you may have hundreds of children with him, and as long as I too shall live, I will love, bless, and care for each as if they were mine also."

Miya turned to stare at her rooftop companion in astonishment. One child or even several were a very deep desire of hers also, one very carefully hidden from everyone. But hundreds? It had been her greatest disappointment in her life with Takehito that she had not conceived, but then she had not bonded to her late husband to become fertile since he had not been an Ashikabi, just a very lovable and kind human male. Logan on the other hand, was a virile powerhouse of a psychic sexy male that would almost certainly be able to turn bonding heat with her into quick conception. And beget love, a mutual romantic love forever and ever that she craved more than anything in the depths of her Kouten goddess soul.

Could that yet happen? Logan already had Kazehana, Akitsu, Matsu, Uzume, Haihane, Benitsubasa, and even the cold Kochou. Why would he need Miya? Especially if any of a few dozen still unwinged Sekirei beauties that included Kaho, Yahan, Tsukuimi, and Musubi were to be bonded to him, maybe even the hated Karasuba. And no matter how Miya looked at it, all seven of his current Sekirei were much more beautiful and/or sexually attractive than she, much more outgoing, playful, and unreserved too. Added to this, there were a lot, maybe hundreds, of female variables on Earth 616 also? Right? All of them probably more attractive and prettier too?

"What can I offer Logan-san that he doesn't already have or can easily get from your equations' other female variables?" Miya sighed in mild despair. "What is so constant about me?"

"I can't say, but you know that every individual in the omniverse is unique. You must trust that this movable singularity I have chosen has factored in your uniqueness, otherwise I would not be here literally begging you to believe me, and believe in yourself. Will you come with me young goddess, and help me save Logan's life? Do not fear for this world or your Inn. If we are successful, time passing here will be inconsequential until your return. Your time there will be brief, and it is good you have dressed warmly and ready for battle as I advised. His world is much more dangerous than this one, but you have the powers and skills needed to survive and bond to my Lord. Help me save him! Take this chance to start anew with my Lord Logan! Meet him on his Earth, learn of him and his world, and find within you that part of the singularity's equations he needs to regain his will to live."

"Only a part?"

"Yes, as I said before, you are a part aside from Sekirei he has already bonded. You are now the next large and very important piece I seek of this singularity's constant that can at least provide possibilities for my Lord to live. There are other parts that I must enlist, and there's no assurances that I can. Again, there are variables I cannot control, but I will move the omniverse inside out to at least get the other constant parts in place with you. Be warned. I cannot influence minds, emotions, and events beyond certain very small limits, or I will radically alter the derivative equations of this singularity and destroy it. My fate and the fate of my Lord rests entirely in the hands of the equation's constant and its different components. And those components HAVE to come together ON Earth 616, not here."

"So, if this, this all works, I will have to share him?" Miya looked up at the starry sky while biting her lip anew. A harem for Logan them? And her a part of that harem? Well yes, silly, she admonished herself, he has already bonded to some "parts" of this singularity's constant. He'd never reject Kazehana, Matsu, or Uzume, let alone Akitsu, and she had already witnessed his sweet tender care of the poor damaged 07. Wait. The seer had said components ON Earth 616. But then, who knew how many other constant parts, aka bonding females to Logan, awaited her acquaintance on Earth 616?

"If so, would that be so bad, young goddess? For your life, love, and happiness? Much better than simply dying alone, no? And a small price for my Lord to live, healed, loved, and happy as he truly deserves? Could you swallow your considerable pride for that?"

Miya swallowed convulsively. Her too haughty pride was one thing, and yes a big problem, but she had never been a great risk taker and always coldly analytical of choices to be made. She was by her very nature conservative, cautious, and exceedingly emotionally reserved as well as having a very high sense of responsibility and propriety. For her to leave everything and everyone behind here amidst such turmoil, uncertainty, and lethal danger on the basis of a such brief acquaintance, a brief and hurried explanation, some desperate pleading words, and a dozen fulfilled predictions, well, that just wasn't Number 01 Miya Asama. Not without intensive study of all factors, but time was very much against her here. There was a short time limit on hot reacting Sekirei that remained unwinged. And so, her gut instincts KNEW she must go to live. Logan had lit the fire for him within her soul, but his fire for her had not ignited at all. She would have heat him up to wing her, but how? Miya swallowed hard again.

"And Karasuba?" Miya, stalling a little, turned her head to look at the still shadowed woman. If Miya had to go to Earth 616 to live, she still didn't want her most hated enemy to profit in any way from her absence.

"Has been stymied in her desires to hunt for my Lord tonight and is now still on MBI guard duty. I made her replacements suffer from mild food poisoning which was allowable by the equations. If you come with me, Number 04 Karasuba becomes a negligible variable in this singularity."

Miya, with a sudden case of nerves attacking her with her last objection for leaving this Earth diminished, nodded her approval of this while not carefully thinking the implications of that last statement through. She peered again at Logan's silhouette now standing upon Izumo Inn's roof and staring up at the night sky above. Her time of decision was now. Every prediction at Takehito's grave by the robed woman had come true. Logan had winged Uzume, Kazehana, Akitsu, Haihane, Benitsubasa, and Kochou in less than twenty four hours. He had come back to Izumo Inn earlier tonight and stayed there with his Sekirei. Karasuba had not come out hunting. He had just now walked around the Inn's grounds by himself, caused Miya to react in intense bonding desires, and then jumped onto the Inn's roof to stare up at the stars while yearning for his death. The odds against all that taking place by mere happenstance where astronomical. The robed woman's other assertions now had a very high probability of accuracy too. Miya once again could feel Logan's desire for death with almost the same eerie chill as Logan's X-Men foes felt when he had been the brainwashed Horseman of Death for Apocalypse in another dimension decades ago.

"Now you see why I weep my heart out for him," Miya's green robed companion murmured in great sadness. "This is what he has been forced to become too many times, but it is not who he really IS! He had fought to be free of it with everything within him, only now, he has been overwhelmed with deep war grief. Deep suicidal war grief that YOU can help heal! You must believe me! Come with me young goddess of Kouten! Fight for a better future for him, your Sekirei, and for yourself! Please come with me and fight!"

"I will come," Miya gripped the handle of the katana hanging from the sword belt about her hips. She pulled her old Disciplinary Squad leader's uniform cloak around her shoulders and stepped back from the apartment building's roof edge without a backward glance at Logan. She had made her choice. Placing her, all Sekirei, and Logan's fate in her own fighting skills appealed to Miya the most, and to be totally honest with herself, she wanted with everything within her to make a healed and loving Logan her Ashikabi. This would be her only chance, but not without some trepidation. The prospect of maybe being the mother of hundreds of children was pretty chilling, extremely actually, unless Logan could be persuaded to have a little family planning? Just two daughters, maybe? Miya shuddered in sudden nervousness. She had to win his heart first. And that right there was her main daunting fear. The too bright, green glow that was enveloping the hooded woman expanded. Miya hesitantly and then more purposely strode towards it to begin her "forever and ever love" quest somewhere far beyond this Earth's starry starry night.


End file.
